A Celtic Legacy
by Kelspook
Summary: The British military stumble across an old Goa'uld stronghold, which has a few surprises in store for SG-1 and their SAS comrades.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer : The characters from Stargate SG-1 aren't mine. They belong to MGM, Gekko, Double Secret and a whole host of other people, who are an awful lot richer than me. This fanfic is purely for fun, not a bean has or will be made from it. I promise to put them back when I'm done playing. Oh, there's no point suing me, cause I work for the NHS, so I'm skint and it would be pointless. LOL. This story idea is mine, and so are Major Lomax, Smudge, Dinger and Chalky.**

**Author's notes : This tale came about after a friend told me of the legends surrounding Hownam Rings- cheers for the inspiration, Jock.**

*** * * * ***

**A Celtic Legacy**

Major Samantha Carter sighed, stretched and reached over to shut down her computer. Scrubbing one hand over her tired eyes she then moved it to the back of her neck, massaging with her fingers and rotating her head from left to right until she was rewarded with a satisfying, bone popping crack.

"Aaahh, that's better," she muttered before running her hand through her short blonde hair and looking back down at the sheets of equations and blueprints lying scattered all over the tabletop, her brow creasing back into concentration.

"That sounded painful," said a wry voice from the doorway.

Sam started violently, the late hour having lulled her into the feeling that she was alone in the complex. Papers cascaded to the floor, and the remnants of a very old, very cold mug of coffee threatened to spill over the worksurface as the cup wobbled. She caught it just in time. Spinning around in her chair, her expression changed from annoyance to a smile as she recognised the petite figure in the doorway, widening to an appreciative grin as she caught the distinctive smell of fresh coffee emanating from the two mugs the shorter woman held.

"Oh hey Janet, what are you still doing here??"

"Sorry Sam, I didn't mean to scare you!" said the two simultaneously. There was a pause, and then both women began to laugh.

Doctor Janet Fraiser stepped all the way into the lab, handing one of the steaming mugs to the tall blonde before settling herself into a spare chair.

"You're a lifesaver, Janet," said Sam before taking a healthy swallow of coffee.

"So they tell me," said the young doctor, smiling. "Warner asked me to cover the first couple of hours of his shift, some sort of family crisis." The brunette took a sip from her own mug before continuing. "I thought you were heading home- doesn't that British officer arrive tomorrow?"

"Yeah, but I had an idea about this new naquada reactor I've been working on and-"

"You just HAD to come back down here and pursue it, and then you lost track of the time..." Janet interrupted, brown eyes sparkling with amusement. She knew her tall friend very well.

Sam laughed again, ruefully. "Yup, that pretty much covers it- guess I'll be staying on the base again tonight."

Janet leaned back in the chair she'd settled herself in. "So any idea what this briefing tomorrow is about?"

Sam shook her head. "Not much. All the General would tell us was that our mission to P3X-462 was being handed over to SG-16, as the Brits have discovered something in their backyard that probably has a lot to do with the Goa'uld."

"And he wanted SG-1 on the case, huh?"

"Yup."

"You four should stop making yourselves so indispensable," said the brunette with a smile.

Sam shrugged. "We'll know more tomorrow...." she glanced at the clock on the wall. "Sorry, today, when they arrive to give us a full rundown on what they've found."

"Unusual that they haven't at least sent a secure transmission ahead… Normally they at least give us a heads up."

"You officially know as much as I do," said the blonde, a split second before being overtaken by a huge yawn.

"Okay, that's it. Hit the sack." Janet glared forcefully at her friend.

"Really Jan, I'm fine, I'll just finish up-"

"Sam. Bed. Now."

"But-"

"Now!" said the brunette, pointing at the open doorway. "Cause if you don't go now, I'll come back and find you snoozing on your desk. Again."

"Okay, okay..." Sam trailed off as she yawned again. "I'm going..."

"Good, because I'm a little too short to carry you." Janet smiled as Sam got to her feet. "That doesn't mean you get to make short jokes, though."

Sam grinned as she rose from her chair. "Okay, now I think I see why the Colonel is so scared of you…"

Janet opened her mouth to retort, before catching the mischievous glint in Sam's eye. "Very funny." Janet tried to keep her face straight, and only partially stopped herself from smiling at the teasing.

"G'night Janet."

"Night Sam."

**0800 Hrs**.

"Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" Thought Sam as she hurtled up the stairway to the briefing room, almost running headlong into Sergeant Siler, who flattened himself against the wall just in time.

"Gah, sorry Siler!"

"No problem, Major," acknowledged Siler to Carter's swiftly retreating back. He shrugged to himself and continued on his way, well used to the idiosyncrasies of the base's resident genius.

Carter skidded to a halt on the landing, taking a second to compose herself before climbing the last flight. Miraculously, she was on time. Just. Despite having overslept by about half an hour.

"Ah, here she is now," said General Hammond in his unmistakable drawl as she emerged from the stairwell.

"Good morning, sir," said Carter, moving toward her customary chair. She saw that Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c and Daniel were already there, O'Neill and Daniel grinning in amusement, Teal'c merely tilting his head slightly in silent enquiry.

"C'mon Carter, last minute entrances are meant to my job." Jack's expression was positively gleeful- it wasn't often he got one up on his smart 2IC.

At that point the General moved to his own chair, and Carter got a clear view of the stranger clad in British fatigues sitting a couple of seats down. She began to stand up to greet the visitor, and then froze. "She looks familiar," she thought, her eyes flicking to the nametag above the left breast pocket of the other woman's combat shirt. LOMAX, she read. "Oh my God..." she thought, her face paling," It can't be the same one.." She looked back at the woman's face, seeing a reflected hint of surprised recognition Lomax's green eyes. "It is!"

The others already having done the introductions, the General turned to the two female officers. "Major Lomax, this is Major Doctor Samantha Carter, astrophysicist and second in command of SG-1." He turned to Carter. "Major Carter, this is Major Siobahn Lomax from the SAS."

O'Neill had been watching curiously as he saw the colour drain from his 2IC's face. "You OK Carter? You look like you just saw a ghost!"

There was a chuckle. "In a way she has, sir," said the SAS officer in a soft Scottish brogue. "A blast fa' the past anyway."

"Carter?"

Sam gave herself a mental shake and tried to pull her thoughts back into some kind of cohesion, then tore her eyes from Lomax to regard her CO. "Max...., I mean, Major Lomax was leader of the team that pulled me out after I got shot down over Iraq in the Gulf, sir." She closed her eyes for a second, as memories of the crash, the capture, the firefight, and the subsequent dash through the desert came flooding back.

O'Neill winced- he'd heard the full story of the crash, Sam's capture and beatings at the hands of the Iraqis, and being liberated by British forces- one quiet night offworld, when the two had been sitting beside a campfire under an alien sky, Daniel asleep, Teal'c on watch. It told him something that Sam had only spoken of it when she was literally on another planet.

Jack looked at the newcomer with a fresh measure of respect. "In that case, we owe you one, Major."

"Indeed," intoned Teal'c, inclining his head.

"It's what we were out there to do, sir. We were just glad we got to Carter and her co-pilot before the Iraqis had a chance to take them into proper secure custody- was a relatively simple ambush," said Lomax. "There were too many we didn't get to," she finished, glancing at O'Neill, her expression clouding. Changing tack, she turned to the General. "Is this the full team, sir?"

Hammond shook his bald head. "We're waiting for one more. She's been delayed in the infirmary, but shouldn't be much longer." He glanced around at SG-1. "Given the nature of this assignment, Doctor Fraiser will be accompanying you."

The faces around the table were becoming increasingly curious.

"Sir?" asked O'Neill.

"Let's just wait for the Doctor, Colonel, then we won't need to go through any of this twice."

Fortunately, the base's CMO chose that moment to appear. Introductions completed, the doctor took the seat next to Carter, giving her friend a curious look as she noticed Sam's troubled expression. Sam shook her head almost imperceptibly, murmuring, "I'll tell you later."

Fraiser nodded in understanding, gave Sam's forearm a squeeze of support, then turned her attention to Major Lomax, who had left her seat and walked over to an open laptop connected to the rooms wallscreen.

"I know you're all dying to know what this is all about, so without further ado, I'll get on with it- with your permission, sir" she said, nodding to the General.

"By all means, go ahead, Major."

* * * *

Lomax nodded to the SF standing at the back of the room, who dimmed the lights slightly, then left. She glanced around, and satisfied that she had the full attention of the room's occupants, began to speak, her accent causing her to roll her R's a little.

"Okay, here's what we've been able to ascertain. About a month ago, two archaeology students disappeared in the hills above a small village in the Scottish Borders called Hownam. They haven't been seen since. Their disappearance wasn't noticed, however, until about a fortnight ago, when they failed to send interim reports to the university."

"A search was launched by a combination of the civvie police and the local mountain rescue team- during that search, two police officers also went missing. They, however, were found a day later on top of Hownam Law, a large hill around two kilometres north of the area they were searching."

Lomax hit a key on the laptop, and the British Ministry of Defence's tri-service logo of army, navy and air force appeared on the screen, the words 'top secret' emblazoned below it in bright red.

"The first couple of pictures are rather nasty, I'm afraid," she warned, and brought up the first.

A photograph of two male corpses was displayed. Almost every inch of visible flesh on the first was charred beyond recognition, and the ribcage had been torn open with massive force. Claw marks were visible on the head, neck and chest, and the abdomen had been completely eviscerated. The second seemed to have escaped the burns suffered by the first, but had been mauled even more extensively, with chunks missing from all four limbs, neck ripped open exposing the windpipe and organs visible glistening through huge rents in the abdominal wall. Huge clawed tracks ran down the left side of the dead man's face into his shoulder, and the shattered ends of his collarbone and top two ribs could be clearly seen.

"Oh my god," gasped Carter, her hand going to her mouth. O'Neill muttered an oath, took a measured look then quickly averted his eyes, and Daniel swallowed convulsively, face paling, before looking away.

Only four were reasonably unaffected- the General and Major Lomax, as they had both seen the image before, Dr Fraiser, for whom the phrase 'this is a bit nasty' was sufficient warning to prepare herself enough that her only outward initial reaction was a slight hiss of rapidly indrawn breath, and Teal'c, who had seen far worse in his time, and was generally unflappable in any case.

"As you can see-" began Lomax, but Fraiser interrupted.

"Do you mind if I take a closer look?"

"Not at all, be interesting to see what conclusion you come to." Lomax swept her left hand toward the screen in the universal gesture for 'be my guest', and stepped aside slightly to allow the doctor some space.

"In fact, the next image is a close up of the wound sites."

Fraiser nodded, and Lomax advanced to the next collection of photographs.

"That's just not right, on so many levels..." moaned O'Neill, as the images of tattered, blackened flesh flashed up.

Carter, however, had regained her composure, rising and moving until she stood beside the petite doctor, her expression intent. She looked closely, at the image, then at the scale superimposed in the bottom left hand corner. "Is this accurate?"

"Yes," Lomax confirmed.

"These wounds...." began Carter.

"Happened AFTER the burns..." Fraiser finished.

"And the claws must be..." picked up Carter.

"Absolutely huge! Nothing originating on this planet could have done this..." finished Fraiser.

"The second ones' arms have defensive wounds..."

"I'd say he had more of a chance to fight...."

"But look at the angle of these ones, he must have-"

"Been attacked from behind, wouldn't have known what hit him...." Fraiser trailed off, her mind racing, trying to think of what could possibly have done so much damage- Sam's expression showing that the same activity was going on in her head, too.

O'Neill cocked his head sideways to Teal'c and muttered, "Y'know, I hate it when they do that- it's like they just have one, really, really smart brain between 'em."

"Their method works well, however it is accomplished O'Neill," said Teal'c, raising an eyebrow.

"I know, it's just kinda spooky," O'Neill responded, before catching sight of the frown General Hammond was directing at him.

"Sorry sir." He said, not sounding the least bit repentant. Lomax almost managed to hide her smile, but not quite, as the other two women fired twin glares at the Colonel, Fraiser's by far the most intimidating. "Remember who'll be doing your next medical, sir." She smiled sweetly. "I'm sure I can find some really big needles...."

O'Neill winced. "Please accept my heartfelt apologies, in that case."

"Well, you've come to the same conclusions that our medical staff did, albeit an awful lot quicker," said Lomax, once the banter had stopped. "The reason we've come to you, though, is because these items were found clutched in the casualty's hands. The Intelligence Corps directed us to you after they saw them." She glanced at the looming bulk of the Stargate visible through the window. "And now I know why."

Lomax advanced to the next picture to reveal, charred but still recognisable, a ribbon device and a slightly strange looking Zatnik'atel.

"Hel-looooo......" murmured O'Neill.

"So you recognise them?" said the SAS officer, quickly.

"Ahh, well...."

"I have all the necessary clearances, colonel, I wouldn't be here otherwise."

"Yeah, we may have seen those before," he said, rubbing his chin. Carter nodded in agreement.

"You might recognise these then, too,"

The next image to appear on the screen was a piece of carved stone, with three concentric circles cut into it. Symbols could be seen inside each one.

"Baal, Apophis and Nirti," supplied Daniel, glancing at Teal'c for confirmation. The big Jaffa nodded, "Indeed, DanielJackson, though I am unaware of any alliance between the three."

"Them again??" said O'Neill, exasperated. "For crying out loud, how many times do we have to clean up after 'em?"

"Were there any other carvings?" asked Daniel, ignoring O'Neill's outburst as his interest flared.

"As it happens, yes," said Lomax, bringing up the last of the slides to reveal a slab of stone covered in text, together with the same circular symbol. Daniel narrowed his eyes. "It's some type of obscure Goa'uld dialect...."

"I agree, DanielJackson, different from any I have before seen."

"Gave me a day, General, and I should be able to translate this with Teal'c's help. Some of it, anyway," Daniel continued, his mind already beginning to work. "Was this found in the same place as the first one?"

Lomax shook her head. "That one was found on the hill where the policemen were last seen. About two K's south- it's called Hownam Rings, and we've been hearing some strange old tales about it from the locals- ghosts and whatnot." She chuckled. "Rural types like passing on the local legends."

"Is that all, Major?" asked the General, rising to his feet.

"Yes sir, it's all we have."

"In that case, yourself, together with SG-1, will leave for the UK at 1500 hours tomorrow. Dismissed." With that, the Texan turned and disappeared into his office.

"I'll go get started," said Daniel, already preoccupied, "I'll see if there's any mention of the Rings in my notes..........coming, Teal'c?"

Teal'c inclined his head to the remaining company, and then followed Daniel down the stairs, his hands clasped behind his back.

O'Neill cleared his throat, suddenly aware that he was now the only guy left in the room, and he guessed that Lomax and Carter would maybe have some catching up to do- they were all probably going to start talking science stuff, anyway.

"I'll just see if those two need a hand," he said, chucking a thumb in the direction of the stairwell. "Oh, Major?"

"Sir?" said both Carter and Lomax in tandem.

"Uh, yeah, Majors... I'll see both of you here at 1400, go over some of the tactical details."

"Yes, sir," said Carter, nodding, and Max echoed the phrase.

O'Neill headed off to "help" Daniel and Teal'c.

Janet gathered her notes. "I should get back to the infirmary, take a closer look at this data. Nice to meet you, Major."

"Likewise," said Lomax, "I'm looking forward to working with you all."

"I'll talk to you later," Janet said to Sam, who nodded. "Uh, yeah, I'll come down in a while," said the blonde, still a little shaken by the sudden appearance of a living reminder of her not so pleasant past.

Fraiser smiled, then left the room.

There was a short, awkward silence, before Sam spoke up.

"You hungry?" Sam asked.

"I could eat, yeah. My system's all to buggery with jet lag."

"Okay, the mess is this way," said Sam, having missed breakfast in her haste to make the briefing.

* * *

"Aaaaahhhhh, that's better," sighed Max as she and Carter entered the astrophysicist's lab, sated and with coffee in hand. Sam grinned, having mostly recovered from the shock of seeing her "blast from the past" and sat down, gesturing to Max to take the other chair. The SAS officer took the proffered seat, placing her coffee carefully on the worktop for fear of disturbing the haphazard piles of paperwork and electronic components. She removed her sandy coloured beret with its distinctive winged dagger capbadge, and ran her fingers through her short dark hair.

"I HATE this transatlantic bollocks," she stated. "My body clock is all out of whack."

Their conversation had been tentative to start with, but both were relaxing, the intervening years dropping away.

"I know what you mean," agreed the tall blonde, "Just try transgalactic- now that REALLY does it."

Max chuckled. "I bet."

"Max, did you know I was here?"

"Nah, had no idea till you walked in."

"You didn't seem very surprised!"

"Well, I was," Max gave Carter a lopsided grin. "I just hid it better- SAS training, y'know."

Carter almost choked on her coffee. "Why you-" she broke off as she saw the grin widen as the baiting worked.

Max had been injured during the op that retrieved Carter and her co-pilot, and so was sent to the same military hospital at Akrotiri in Cyprus, Carter having been both injured in her crash and treated badly by her Iraqi captors. The two had become friends during their recuperation, then lost touch, as often happens in the military.

"So when did you manage to get into the SAS?" asked Sam, curiously. She hadn't realised that there were any women in the elite regiment.

"Before the Gulf."

"I had no idea-"

"You weren't meant to. We don't advertise who we are. For one thing, the government don't want the public to know about the fact that there are women in the regiment. Another is the terrorist aspect- knowing who were would put people in danger." She frowned. "It can be tough on family though- I mean, if anything was to happen to me, they'd be told it had been some dumb training accident."

Sam nodded- her family would be told the same thing- well all except her Tok'ra father, that is. The Stargate program was just as highly classified, if not more so, and not being able to tell her Dad why she didn't want NASA had torn her apart. She understood the reasons for it- "need to know" was the most efficient way of minimising security risks after all, but just because she understood the need for it didn't mean that she had to like it.

"So how about you?" said Max, breaking into Sam's thoughts. "This place looks like something off Doctor Who."

"After the Gulf, I couldn't fly," Sam explained. "So my tour was cut short, and I got posted back to the academy to finish my astrophysics degree- after that I got attached to the team working on the gate, as I specialised in wormhole physics. We finished off the system, and worked out the glitches in the software."

Max gave a low whistle, impressed.

"Wow... then you started hopping through it?"

"Not for about two years. I did a stint at the Pentagon first, trying to resolve the Gate's dialling problem, but that didn't happen until Colonel O'Neill went through the gate to a planet called Abydos," Carter explained. "Daniel discovered the cartouche there."

"What's a cartouche?" asked Max, looking a little confused.

"It was a collection of stargate addresses carved into the walls of a chamber on Abydos."

"Ah, right, gotcha. Go on." said Max, nodding.

"Anyway," Carter continued, " They brought back vital information that now allows us to calculate the degree of stellar drift to compensate for with any given set of co-ordinates......what?" Max was now just staring, expression one of blank incomprehension. The Scot shook her head.

"I knew you were clever, but you're now blowing me away." She made a whooooshing noise and simultaneously snatched her hand from the front of her head, over it, to the back. "Straight over my head, mate," Max clarified, seeing Sam's blank look at the gesture.

"It's pretty simple really- " Sam's eyes began to sparkle with enthusiasm. "In the couple of thousand years since the gate on earth was last active-"

"Woah, woah!" said Max, holding her hands up in surrender. "Jet lag, remember. Jeeez, and I thought I had dark secrets...." she trailed off, and then got to her feet, having emptied her coffee mug. "I need to go back up and see the General- catch you at 1400."

"You remember the way?"

"Um, kinda, but I'll just grab one of those lads you've got dotted about the place- I'm sure you've got stuff needing done that you want to get on with. One o' the airmen will be a perfectly good guide- besides, I haven't scared anyone today yet," Max finished with a slightly evil grin.

Sam nodded, she needed to touch base with Janet and throw a few more thoughts around about the briefing before talking to the colonel. She also needed to see what progress Daniel and Teal'c had made on the translation. "Okay," said the blonde, "See you later- be gentle on the junior ranks!"

"Of course I will!" said Max, jamming her beret back onto her head and disappearing into the corridor. Sam winced and shook her head slightly as she heard the Scottish officer appropriating a hapless non-com.

"Hey you! YES YOU! You doing anything life and death important?"

"Uh, no, I'm just-"

"Marvellous- it can wait for fifteen minutes then. Take me to General Hammonds office!"

"Yessir!"

"Do I LOOK like a SIR to you??!"

The airman's responses were becoming increasingly terrified.

"No si- , I mean, no Ma'am!!"

"Better. Don't just stand there gawpin' like a trout that's just been chucked out of a pond, c'mon lad, which way?"

Sam chuckled as she heard the voices diminish into the distance- the Brits certainly did things differently. She gathered up a few papers and went off to find the diminutive doctor.


	2. Chapter 2

**1430 Hrs.**

"Okay, so we go in as far as this point in land rovers, then it's on foot," said O'Neill, eyes glued to the map spread over the polished wood table.

"Sir." agreed Lomax. "Transport has been organised from a local T.A. centre in the area."

"T.A.?"

"National Guard."

"Oh." He bent back to the map. "Okay....." O'Neill looked up as Carter entered the room.

"Sorry I'm late, sir, but Doctor Fraiser had come up with a few ideas, and we thought we'd better follow them through."

"What have you got, Carter?"

The tall Major looked grim. "Whatever did this to those two men was immensely strong sir- they didn't have a chance."

"You're right- I saw the bodies, they were in a hell of a mess," said Lomax.

"Yeah. What we need to know is- was there any blood on the ground?"

"Only from the second one- our medics couldn't work it out, seemed like the first one had been dumped there post mortem- no tracks from either of them leading to or from the hill, either."

O'Neill watched his 2IC, wondering where she was going with this. Carter met his gaze.

"Sir, I think we have to look at the possibility of a ring device in the area. If whatever savaged these men was still working on the second one when the rings were activated, that would explain why only the second man's blood got onto the ground- the first would have stopped bleeding by then. Unfortunately, that means that there's a real risk that whatever it was is now loose in the British countryside."

"Ring device?" asked Lomax, confused.

"It's a matter transfer device that converts matter to energy then-"

O'Neill interrupted her before she could finish. "Kinda like the transporters on Star Trek," he translated. Lomax nodded, by now ready to believe just about anything was possible, given the sights she'd seen since she arrived. O'Neill smirked at the blonde. "Sometimes your explanations leave us folks even more confused, Carter."

Carter gave a quiet, long suffering sigh and continued. "We've seen these underground labs before, like the one Nirti had on Hanka, and we know the Goa'uld have had stasis chambers for a long time- maybe those people triggered the rings by accident, and something was released from stasis when they rematerialised?"

"Something, Carter?"

"Some type of creature or mutation we haven't seen before, sir. Nirti had been trying all sorts of ways to create the perfect host, after all."

"Okay, but why would Baal and our buddy Apophis be involved with little miss Franken-Goa'uld?"

"That's the part we can't work out, sir. In all the other dealings of Nirti's we've uncovered, she always worked alone. She didn't want to share any power with the other System Lords."

Major Lomax was only just keeping up. "So we know what we're dealing with, then?"

"Not exactly," said Carter, blue eyes troubled as they always were when not dealing with absolute facts, "But we can take an educated guess."

"Honkin' great space beasties," said O'Neill, and was rewarded with a half smile from Carter. "Maybe, sir."

"Okay, these Gold things...."

"Goa'uld," corrected Carter.

"Whatever," said Lomax, with a wave of her hand. "But we can kill 'em, right?"

"Oooohhhhh yeah," said O'Neill, "Been there, done that, made ourselves unpopular," He gave an exaggerated sigh. "Very unpopular. I so hate losing friends, too," he finished, his voice dripping with insincere regret.

Lomax raised an eyebrow, and glanced from the Colonel to Carter. The blonde Major just shrugged slightly and quirked her own eyebrow, as if to say, "he does that, you'll get used to it."

"So, we go, we find it, we kill it. Job done." said the dark haired Scot, decisively.

"Sounds like a plan," agreed O'Neill, Carter nodding.

"Indeed, our conclusions are similar," rumbled a deep voice from behind them, as Teal'c and Daniel rejoined the other three, Daniel holding an open notebook.

"I've not managed to translate it all yet, but what we've got isn't exactly bedtime reading," he said, perching himself on the edge of the table. "They had an alliance though, that much is certain- all three are mentioned in the text." Daniel squeezed his eyes shut and removing his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose. Opening them, he dropped his hand to his side and shook his head. "The dialect was too obscure," he explained, "All we've got is snippets, about some kind of experiments."

"This knowledge is useful, DanielJackson- we are now certain that the three were working toward a common purpose." Daniel glanced at the Jaffa and nodded. "Yup, there is that."

Siler knocked on the doorframe. "Major Lomax?"

"That's me, Sergeant."

"There's a call for you from the UK, but you'll need to come down to the secure line in the control room to take it."

"Show me the way," said Lomax, following Siler down toward the control room.

A few minutes later, she came back up the steps, along with the General.

"Okay people, there's been a change of plan," said Hammond. "Your plane is now leaving at 2300, so I want SG-1 geared up and ready by 2200 hours. Major Carter, would you go and inform Doctor Fraiser of the new schedule?"

"Right away, sir."

"Why the change?" asked O'Neill, frowning- he had a bad feeling....

"There's been another killing, sir. Poor sod of a shepherd in the wrong place at the wrong time. They've decided this now has top priority, so an RAF Tristar has been diverted from Medicine Hat and is on its way."

"Well, I guess that answers it- Carter, one of your honkin' great space beasties is loose."

"I wish I'd been wrong, sir."

The General cleared his throat. "Ok, SG-1- you have a go. Good Luck." He turned toward his office. "Dismissed."

SG-1 dispersed on their usual pre-mission tasks, drawing gear from the armoury and general stores, all except Major Carter, who headed for the infirmary to tell Janet of the time changes, and Lomax, who went to have a final word with the General, then called her team in the UK, who would be joining them in Scotland.

Six hours later, SG-1, along with Doctor Fraiser and Major Lomax, were airborne and headed across the ocean.

* * * *

Daniel threw himself into the seat across the aisle from where Major Carter and Doctor Fraiser were quietly conversing. They'd both tried to sleep, but the combination of aircraft noise, and O'Neill's snores, had finally convinced them that it was next to impossible.

"How do you put up with that off world?" asked Fraiser, gesturing in the direction of the slumbering Colonel who'd ensconced himself across four seats a couple of rows farther toward the front of the plane.

"You get used to it," smiled Carter. The smile became slightly pained. "Eventually."

Carter, Fraiser and Daniel were the only ones still awake. Lomax's boots could be seen protruding from behind a seat back a row forward and to the left, and Teal'c had found a space on the floor at the rear of the aircraft and was sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, deep in a state of Kel'noreem.

"Why the curtain?" asked Fraiser, gesturing to the blue fabric obscuring the view to the front of the plane.

"I asked Max about that," said Daniel. "She said it was because the servicemen up front weren't supposed to see us."

"What, the crew??"

"No, this plane was diverted from Medicine Hat in Canada- but it had already taken off with a platoon of infantry, so they decided it would take far too long to turn around and offload them and all their gear again, so we're to stay in this part."

Carter nodded, she and the Colonel had discussed it with Major Lomax earlier, and it made sense. "So, have you made anymore progress translating that text?"

"A little," said Daniel, leafing through the assorted photographs and papers he had deposited in his lap. He glanced in the direction of the snores. "Should I wake him up?"

Carter shook her head. "No, let them sleep. We've got plenty of time before we land."

"Okay- well, as far as I can make out, it wasn't that they were trying to make an improved host."

"So what were they trying to do?" asked Fraiser quickly, frowning. Her own rather personal involvement with Nirti, through Cassandra, making her a little more intense than usual- the fact that the Goa'uld had been released to ruin more lives had ground on her conscience ever since she had seen a young mans' cellular structure break down right before of her eyes, and she'd been unable to do a damn thing to stop it. Sam rested a supportive hand on Janet's shoulder, and nodded for Daniel to continue.

"Yeah, well, by the looks of this, their goal was an improved Jaffa," he pointed at a section of the text. "It says here that 'the premier warriors of the gods will cover us all in glory and conquest.' I'm just guessing, but I'd say that means a better Jaffa."

Sam and Janet exchanged a long look, then both began talking at once.

"Sorry, Janet," said Sam, indicating to the Doctor that she should go first.

"Thanks." The brunette paused for a second, collecting her thoughts. "Maybe it didn't work as well as they hoped- perhaps whatever they made didn't turn out as controllable as they wanted it to be."

"They have a history of simply abandoning failed experiments," mused Sam. She shifted, folding a leg under herself to let her face Daniel and Janet; her face animated, and started to gesture with her hands.

"Right," she pondered, eyes lighting up as began to consider the possibilities. "Maybe they tried to combine different qualities from different species, the Unas have pretty wicked claws-"

Fraiser snapped her fingers, and muttered, "THAT was what was odd-" She flicked through her own notes until she found the sheet containing the DNA information that had been found in the wounds. "Look, here, here," She pointed at various portions of the columns of dark bands covering the acetate sheet. "And here- there are small differences in the base pair arrangement. I had thought it was simply a result of a slightly different analysis technique to the one we use, but-" She shook her head slightly, then looked back up at the other two. "Sam, can you link your laptop to the base's mainframe from here? I really need to do some cross referencing with the SGC's medical database."

Sam thought for a second. "It shouldn't be too much of a problem- I can use the 'planes secure commsystem- I'll have to get Siler to drop the firewalls though."

Carter got up, and went to wake Lomax. They'd agreed that the British officer should be the only one that the soldiers in the front of the plane saw, as her uniform wouldn't raise much curiosity. Sam grabbed Max's foot and gave it a shake- the Scot had a habit of lashing out if awoken suddenly, something Sam had found out to the cost of a bruised cheekbone in Cyprus, so the blonde Major was sensibly staying out of range.

"Mmmmmmphhh,bugg'roff......" muttered the dark haired Scot, before her eyes snapped open and she simultaneously took a swipe at the empty air above her. She looked around and focused on Carter, quickly remembering where she was.

"Wha'.......... oh, sorry." She yawned and sat up, raising her hand to rub the sleep from her eyes. "What's going on?"

"I need you to talk to the aircrew," explained Carter. "We need a connection to the secure comms to get some data from the SGC's computer system- I'll need voice comms with the base too, there are a few technical things that'll need to be done at the other end before the data transfer can take place."

"No probs, I'll away and sort it," said Max, as she got to her feet and disappeared through the curtain, bound for the cockpit.

Sam busied herself booting up the small, state of the art portable computer, and began entering the relevant connection codes.

"How long will it take?" asked Daniel.

"Assuming the aircraft's system is compatible, not long- a few minutes at most. Failing that, we'll have to wait 'till we land and can get a secure phone line."

Lomax reappeared, carrying a couple of cables and a headset. She removed one of the small panels inset into the wall of the cabin at regular intervals, to reveal two USB ports. "That's data, and that one's voice," she said, gesturing to each of the sockets as she spoke.

"The crew are contacting the SGC now, should be up and running." She handed over the headset and cables. "Anything else?"

"No, that's it for now."

"Okay, I'm gonna get my head back down then- gimme a yell if you find owt interesting." Max settled herself back into where she had been sleeping, until her boots were once again all that was visible.

Sam connected up the cables and headset.

"What do you think you're going to find?" Daniel asked the young doctor, as Carter began quietly talking to Sergeant Siler.

"I'm not certain, but I think we're going to find similarities between the DNA fragments and the other species in the SGC database. If we're right, then the software didn't recognise the patterns because it was all strung together."

Daniel raised his eyebrows, and then frowned. "I thought that DNA from different species was generally incompatible."

"We used to think that," said the doctor, shaking her head slightly," But our own advances in gene splicing have shown that it can be done." She glanced back at the sheet in her hand. "Though we're nowhere near this level of complexity......"

The SGC logo popped up on the computer screen, swiftly followed by the mainframe's main menu.

"That's it- thanks Siler," said Sam into the mic. "Leave the firewall set to recognise this laptop for the next three hours, in case we need to get back in."

"You got it, Major. SGC out."

Sam removed the headset and passed the small computer to Janet, who began searching for the files she needed.

* * *

Around an hour and a half later, Janet had tracked down seventy percent of the DNA fragments in the sample, cross matching them with the existing DNA samples stored in the SGC's computers. She was waiting for a search of a more generalised civilian zoological DNA database to finish, following a hunch she had that the unidentified fragments were from indigenous species. In the meantime, she was sharing what results she had with the rest of the team.

"It looks like the Goa'uld utilised almost all of the sentient species they had access to," She indicated the data on the screen. "There were three separate DNA patterns from sentient species. Goa'uld, Unas, and human....... the only one missing was the Asgard. That accounts for about seventy percent. As for the rest, I have a hunch it's from various earth based animal species, but I won't know that for sure until this final search is completed."

O'Neill grimaced. "I'm guessin' the thing won't win any beauty contests, with a family tree like that."

"So it's a mix of all three?" asked Daniel, Carter following up with, "The Goa'uld DNA is actually integrated? Rather than parasitical?"

"Yes, and yes- How they did it, I couldn't say..... we'd certainly have no way of duplicating this."

At that moment, the computer gave a quiet beep, indicating that it had completed its operations, and was ready to display its results. Fraiser hit a key, and a graph flashed up.

"Okay, lets see what we have...." said Fraiser. "Panther, mountain gorilla, and cobra make up the other thirty percent."

"Hold up," said O'Neill, his expression incredulous. "Are you telling me that this thing could have qualities from all these things??"

Fraiser nodded. "And there's no guarantee that there's only one of the creatures- If Sam's right about an underground lab being up there, there could be quite a few of them."

"Bloody hell........." muttered Lomax, and looked at O'Neill, Carter and the rest of SG-1. "And this is a normal day at the office for you lot?"

"It's a living," said O'Neill, shrugging.

"How about infrared?" asked Carter.

"Would these things show up?" asked Lomax, her brow creasing in thought.

"I would have thought so, yes," said Carter. "It has mammalian DNA, so its body should produce heat."

Lomax nodded, and looked at the Colonel. "In that case sir, I'll request a Lynx helicopter with IR cameras fitted to sweep the area while we're up there- could give us an edge."

"Good idea. We might want a little extra firepower too- Unas that haven't been messed with take some stopping, let alone one that's the new and improved version with extra lemony freshness........." O'Neill glanced at his watch. "How long before we land?"

"An hour to RAF Leuchars. Then around half an hour by Chinook to rendezvous with my team just outside Kelso. Two of them should be in Edinburgh just now, at Redford barracks- I told them to stay there till the last minute, in case we needed any extra kit. I'll get them to pick up a few goodies from the armoury there, before they head for the Borders."

"Where's the third?"

"The third is in Kelso now, sorting us out a base of operations- we've commandeered the local cadet hall."

O'Neill nodded. "Okay, get your guys to pick us up some extra toys." He smirked. "Wouldn't want our playmates to get bored with us."

"Yes, sir." With that, Lomax turned and headed for the front of the aircraft to make the necessary arrangements.


	3. Chapter 3

"Where's the damn smoke?" The pilots voice crackled over the headsets they were all wearing. On the ground two figures broke away from the parked vehicles and ran out into the clear area. As they watched they saw the two trigger a smoke flare apiece. Orange coloured smoke boiled forth from the flares, allowing the pilot to ascertain the wind speed and direction on the ground.

"Ah, there it is," the pilot muttered, and after allowing the two men on the ground to get clear, began his approach. The Chinook touched down gently, and as the engines cycled down to idling speed, the mechanical ramp at the rear began to lower. The two men on the ground had meanwhile jumped back into the vehicles, and were bouncing across the uneven ground, coming to a halt just outside the range of the massive twin rotors. Hopping back out, the two trotted up to meet the disembarking team.

The first, a bear of a man with dark hair and an equally dark moustache, snapped a crisp salute. "Welcome to the UK, sir." O'Neill returned it, "Thank you....." he looked at the insignia on the man's chest, three chevrons with a crown above it. "Colour Sergeant," his memory finally supplied the correct British rank. The second man was smaller and slimmer, with three chevrons only, and short, sandy blonde hair visible below the nondescript green woolly hat that both were wearing with their fatigues. He began picking up gear and stowing it in the land rovers. Lomax had been thanking the RAF crew before they returned to base, and reappeared, hopping down to the ground before noticing the two NCO's.

"Afternoon ma'am!" said the colour sergeant, and snapped another crisp salute. His companion rolled his eyes and shook his sandy blonde head slightly, before going back to assisting Teal'c, Daniel and Carter with the equipment.

"Dinger."

"Yes ma'am!"

"Pack it in."

"Yes ma'am!" he grinned, and saluted again. Lomax fixed her 2IC with a steady glare. "Dinger." There was a definite note of warning in her tone.

"Sorry, boss," he said, still grinning. "Just thought I'd try and make a good impression on our allies, here."

Carter, O'Neill and Fraiser watched the byplay between the three British soldiers in mild bemusement- though all three had worked with the British in the past, the more relaxed, rough and ready attitude always took a little getting used to. Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow, and stored it away among the other strange customs of the Tau'ri.

"All you're making is an arse of yourself." Lomax turned to O'Neill and the rest of the team. "The big lad here is Colour Sergeant "Dinger" Bell, and the quieter one is Sergeant "Chalky" White"

O'Neill swiftly introduced SG-1 and the doctor as the last of the gear was loaded up.

"Where's Smudge?" Lomax asked Dinger as they all climbed aboard, Chalky jumping into the driver's seat of the vehicle packed with gear, Dinger into the other. Everyone was riding with Dinger, as Chalky's land rover was packed to the roof with stores.

"Finishing up a few bits- couldn't get any claymores, so he's making some."

Fraiser leaned over and murmured to Carter, "Making claymores?" Lomax overheard, and grinned at the CMO. "Those things are very nice, which means we sometimes have problems getting them. So we make our own."

Carter nodded. "I saw their home made ones in the Gulf- they're even nastier than the manufactured version, if that's possible." The doctor winced slightly, having seen the damage that the normal ones could do, then brightened a bit as she remembered what they were up against.

"You just take an ice cream tub, some plastic explosive, some det cord and whatever nuts, bolts and other nasty metal bits you can find," threw Dinger cheerfully over his shoulder. "Put it all together, tape it all up, add a clacker to set the whole lot off," his grin turned a bit evil. "And Bob used to be your uncle."

"I like that thinking," said O'Neill.

"Why would you wish to attack relatives?" asked Teal'c. His eyebrow rose as he saw O'Neill's expression. "A figure of speech?"

"You got it, big guy."

The two vehicles passed through a set of double gates, before drawing up in front of what appeared to be a normal residential house. Normal, that is, if houses usually had indoor ranges attached to them.

"Here we are," said Dinger, jumping out.

"We've taken over someone's house?" asked Carter.

"No, just looks that way," said Lomax as the two sergeants began offloading gear and ferrying it inside. "Used to house the local recruiting team- but got handed over to the cadet detachment a couple of years ago, so we've pinched it off them for a week or so."

Lomax led the team inside. "Okay lads, where's the shiny stuff?"

Chalky motioned in the direction of an open doorway just down the hall, from where muted swearing could be heard.

"BOLLOCKS!" exploded from the doorway, swiftly followed by the appearance of a stocky redheaded man in combats who stomped out holding onto a bleeding cut on his thumb. He stopped as he caught sight of the group. "Oh sorry boss, didn't know you were here."

Fraiser immediately snapped into professional mode. "Let me see that." He looked dubious.

"Smudge, this is Doctor Fraiser. She is also a US air force officer, so do as you're damn well told!"

"Sorry ma'am," said the redhead, proffering the injured digit. Fraiser found a first aid kit and began to patch up the cut.

"Sergeant Smudge Smith," said Lomax by way of introduction. "All the kit through there, Smudge?"

"Yes, boss," he responded, then winced slightly as Fraiser dug out a small metal shard from the wound.

O'Neill led the way into the room, Carter, Teal'c and Daniel following close behind. Dinger and Lomax brought up the rear.

"Got a few things we need to bring you up to speed on, sir," said Dinger.

"Go right ahead," said O'Neill as his eyes roved around the room, taking in the various weaponry laid out on the tables. "So what did you get for us?"

"Well sir, on top of our personal weapons-"

"Which are?"

"Two M-16's with 203 grenade launchers fitted- got ten of the forty mill bombs for each, as well as two minimi's," he slapped the top of one of the light machine guns, "With night sights and plenty of belt fed ammo for both."

"What else?" asked Carter.

"Four LAW 90's," said Dinger, grinning.

"What are they?" interrupted Daniel.

"Light Anti Tank Weapon, 90 mill armour piercing rocket," he explained, hefting one of the green tubes out of its box.

"Half a dozen claymores, plus a fair bit of leftover PE, with all the timers, detonators and other goodies to go along with."

"Okay," said O'Neill," Lets gear up people, I want us ready to go as soon as possible."

Two hours later, all eight were speeding toward the Cheviot Hills. Doctor Fraiser had been dropped off at the local hospital; to carry out a secondary post mortem on the shepherd's body, as it hadn't yet been moved. Chalky had been detailed to return for her when she had completed it, as he would be staying with the vehicles in case of casualties, and in order to act as a central comms point between SG-1, the SAS patrol, and the Lynx helicopter when they called for it to do it's sweep with infra red. The roads gradually changed from asphalt to dirt tracks, as the gently rolling hills gave way to a more impressive, rugged landscape of glacier cut terrain interspersed with heather strewn moorland.

Finally, after a particularly bone crushing thud, the two vehicles came to a halt.

"That's it, sir," said Chalky, nodding to O'Neill.

"Okay kids," said O'Neill, jumping from the vehicle and retrieving his assault vest, pack and P90 from the floor. "Time for a stroll."

The others joined him, shrugging into their gear, and checking weapons.

"It's this way, sir," said Carter, confidently. She gestured to the east. Teal'c nodded. "Major Carter is indeed correct, O'Neill,"

"Ah, so there's gold in them thar hills, huh?" said O'Neill.

"I cannot sense gold, O'Neill," said Teal'c, raising an eyebrow. The Colonel gave the big Jaffa a withering look. "You're no fun, you know that?"

"There's naquada up here, I can feel it." said Carter, as Lomax checked her map and compass, and then looked at the blonde major in surprise. "You're right, that's the bearing to Hownam Law- how the devil did you do that??"

"Long story," Said Carter as Dinger took point and they moved off. "Fair enough, tell me on the way," said Lomax before pausing to give Chalky a few last minute orders, then catching up to the group.

* * *

"I believe you should look at this, O'Neill,"

They had been patrolling for about three hours. The route they were taking wasn't direct by any means, as both O'Neill and Lomax had agreed that it made sense to follow the exact route that the two murdered police officers had taken. Though everyone in the patrol knew to be on the lookout for any signs of unusual activity, typically Teal'c with his superior tracking skills was the first to find anything.

O'Neill hunkered down beside Teal'c and took off his sunglasses, looking down at where a faint footprint could be seen.

"This foot was wearing no shoe. There are also claw marks- and they are somewhat larger than those of an Unas."

"I guess that confirms the theory," said O'Neill as Carter and Daniel joined them. The SAS soldiers had spread out and were keeping watch, letting SG-1 do what they did best.

"What way was it travelling, Teal'c?" asked Carter, also hunkering down for a closer look.

"North," he said, pointing to a second print just visible in the dirt. "I believe in that direction lies the location we seek."

Carter checked the map. "He's right. The place where the corpses were found is almost due north of here."

"Going back for a second helping, maybe....... guess it's never heard of takeout..." O'Neill twisted round and motioned to Lomax to join them.

"Stay sharp, boys," she told her team before jogging over. "What we got?" she asked as she drew near enough.

"It came through here- how long ago, Teal'c?" said Carter, glancing at the big Jaffa.

"No more than six hours ago, MajorCarter."

"So, pretty good chance the thing is still hangin' around," said O'Neill. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, and they area they were in looked reasonably defensible, so he decided to call a halt for the night. There was a wood nearby that would provide them with cover, and the surrounding area was pretty open, allowing anyone, or anything, approaching to be seen from at least three hundred metres away.

"Okay, we'll camp here for the night- getting surprised by that thing in the dark isn't on the top of my "stuff to do" list."

"That's a good idea, sir," Carter agreed. "From what Doctor Fraiser found out, chances are these things have far better night vision than we do."

Lomax nodded, and turned toward where Bell and Smith were crouched, both scanning the surrounding area alertly.

"Right then- Dinger, Smudge!" she said, yelling the two names. Both heads turned in her direction. "Go sort us out a harbour area" She looked back at O'Neill as the two sprang to their feet. "You want an explosive perimeter, sir?"

"Yeah, but no tripwires- hand trigger only."

"In that case, no Elsies either-"

"Elsies?" said Daniel.

"Anti personnel mines." said Max, before addressing Smudge and Dinger again. "Just find a bit where we can run out the claymores."

"No probs, boss." The huge colour sergeant headed into the woods to secure the area, the smaller redhead in tow. They could be heard trading good-natured insults as they went and after a final "ginger shortarse," the two vanished from view among the trees.

Carter dropped to one knee and removing her pack, began to rifle through it.

"Lost something?" asked Daniel, before she finally found the device she was looking for.

"No, got it." Carter activated the little portable scanner; one of the few pieces of technology the Tollan had given them, as it had no militaristic application. She stood up and slowly turned through three hundred and sixty degrees, studying the display intently.

"There's definitely naquada up there, sir," she said, gesturing northward.

"We'll see for sure tomorrow," O'Neill was still sweeping his gaze over the surrounding countryside and saw Dinger re-emerging from the wood. A grin appeared below the big man's moustache, and he signalled a thumbs up to indicate that they'd found a suitable area to set up for the night.

O'Neill raised a hand in acknowledgement. "Okay campers, let's get organised." He followed Dinger into the wood, the rest of the team following on.

They had just finished setting up their camp when the radio crackled into life.

"Hello Sunray, this is Zero, message, over." Chalky's voice was clear, though there was a little static. Dinger grinned at Lomax. "It's for you-hooo...."

"Shut up, Dinger," said Max, trying not to smile. He kept on grinning, and carried on with wiring up the claymores. It seemed that the big man was almost impossible to offend.

"Sunray?" said O'Neill to Carter. Daniel raised his head from the notebook he'd been writing in to hear the blonde's explanation.

"British standard callsign for a commander."

Daniel looked from O'Neill to Lomax and back. "Jack, aren't you in command? I thought-"

"This isn't the same as going offworld with a load of Russians-for one thing we trust the Brits...." said O'Neill.

"The Colonel is in command, but his callsign is Sierra Golf One Niner- as Max is in command of the British half of this assignment, she's Sunray." Carter explained.

"Oh, ok, I get it," said Daniel, and went back to the portion of text he was working on. 'I'll never understand the military,' he thought.

"Hello Zero, this is Sunray, send message, over."

"Sierra Golf Delta retrieved, data to be sent, over."

"Roger that, Zero. Will advise when ready for data receipt, over"

"Understood. Zero, out."

Lomax looked over at O'Neill. "Looks like the doc has info for us sir, she's finished the post mortem. I'll need to get the data burst radio set up to receive it… Dinger!"

"Boss?"

"Get the scaly kit set up!"

"'Kay,"

"Scaly kit?" asked O'Neill- he didn't recognise the slang term.

"Sorry," Max apologised, "I'll try and stop that, sir- I meant the digital data burst transceiver. It's nice and secure, so we've got no worries about it being overheard. We've got one, and Chalky has the other with him at the landrover. We thought we might need to punt sensitive stuff back and forth, so we brought a couple along."

"Cool. Carter, why don't we have one of those?" said O'Neill to his 2IC- it seemed to him they had all the other gadgets under the sun when they were out and about.

"Because we don't need one, sir. All our comm traffic is either offworld, or back to the SGC. The mountain is well shielded so we don't have to worry about our signals being overheard- they never reach the surface." Carter went across to take a look at the equipment the big sergeant was assembling.

Teal'c cocked his head slightly, a sure sign that he had misunderstood some of what had been said. "The radio has scales?" He raised an eyebrow.

Lomax chuckled. "No, not at all. We call guys in the Royal Corps of Signals scaleybacks, so radios get called scaly kit."

"I see. So it is a Tau'ri custom."

"It's a British army custom, really," said Max, grinning.

"Why scaleybacks?" asked Daniel, still wondering about the term.

"As far as I know, it's because in the First World War the backpack radios had lead acid batteries. The acid used to leak and it made the skin of the Signalman's back dry out and flake underneath it. It looked like fish scales, so the signallers got called scaleybacks."

"That must have been uncomfortable." Said Daniel, and bent back to his notes.

"Bugger…" Dinger growled under his breath.

"What's wrong?" asked Carter, looking over his shoulder.

"It's goosed." He turned the set over, displaying to the blonde Major the connectors that had been torn loose. The damaged edge of a circuit board was visible through the hole. "Got no way of fixing it up here, either…… Smudge ya useless git! Thought you checked this?"

"I bloody well did!"

"Not very well then!" glowered the colour sergeant. "It's knackered!"

"Can't be!" The red headed sergeant joined Carter to look at the offending piece of equipment. "You must've knocked it about in the top of your bergen."

Carter had finished inspecting the damage, and interrupted the bickering. "How it happened doesn't really matter, but I might be able to fix it. I have a toolkit in my pack."

"That would be a big help, ma'am."

Carter headed over to where she'd dumped her gear, but was still just close enough to hear Smudge say quietly, "An officer that fixes things? Sommat new every day."

Carter had opened up the radio, and the damage was worse than they'd thought. She sighed and looked up just as the colonel returned from his stint on watch. "Sir? We have a problem."

"Whassup, Carter?"

"I don't have the parts available to fix this sir- it's just not compatible with anything else we've brought. If we want to get the information from Doctor Fraiser, we're going to have to meet up with her and Sergeant White."

Lomax was close enough to overhear, and walked over. "Chalky can bring the vehicle much further up than we did, sir. Only reason we came up on foot was because that was where the policemen started walking from." She took her map from her pocket and stabbed at an area with her finger. "That's as far as they'll get, it'll be walking from there… Would only be about five K's though, and we can send the boys down to rendezvous with them."

"Well, we need to know what she knows, so…" O'Neill trailed off, thinking. He wasn't particularly happy about the two being isolated on the hill in the dark. "What firepower does White have?"

"Left him one of the Minimi's, and he's got a few grenades and a sidearm- the forth LAW 90 is down there with him as well."

"So he's well armed, and the doc has a P90 and a sidearm too." There was a time that the thought of the small doctor armed would have made him uneasy, but having seen how the women of the base had handled themselves against Hathor his view had changed a little.

"Okay, lets get them up here."

An hour later, night had fallen completely. They'd gotten in touch with Chalky and Doctor Fraiser, and the two were travelling up to meet them. Smudge and Teal'c were on watch, and the rest of the team were grabbing some sleep before Dinger and Smudge had to leave to meet up with Chalky and Doctor Fraiser.

Smudge was scanning the horizon, and thought he saw movement. There was a half moon in the sky, so the darkness wasn't absolute, though scudding clouds were periodically making it difficult to see.

"You see that?" he murmured to Teal'c.

"I did not," said the big Jaffa, looking in the direction the smaller man was pointing. They both saw the next movement, though it was gone again almost immediately.

"Ach, probably just a fox."

"I do not believe so. I cannot sense a Goa'uld, but there is something out there."

"You sure?"

"Indeed."

"We better get the Colonel and the rest of 'em up here then." The young sergeant stood up from the base of the tree he'd been leaning against. It was almost a costly error. Teal'c heard a hiss, and reacted instinctively, diving and dragging the man to the ground a split second before a stream of liquid hit the tree, exactly where Smudge's head had been. A patch of bark began to bubble and smoke.

"What the hell??"

"We are under attack," said Teal'c, springing back to his feet and readying the MP5 he was carrying in place of his staff weapon.

Smudge leapt up and raced sideways, before crouching down beside a tree and cocking the Minimi he held. He turned his head back toward the camp to alert the rest of the team.

"CONTACT! CONTACT! STAND TO!" he roared.

That was the last mistake he was to make. As the young soldier turned back, he saw a blur of movement and felt a ripping pain sear across his torso as he stared into a face straight from the depths of his worst nightmares. The creatures' bottom set of fangs jutted up from the lower jaw, with reptilian armoured skin and yellow slitted eyes. Blood dripped from the heavy set of claws protruding from the fingers of its right hand. It advanced on Smudge as he fell to the ground, tried to scramble backwards and desperately attempted to bring his weapon to bear. It raised its long, heavily muscled arm, and the British soldier tensed. It didn't get the chance to attack. It turned and screamed in defiance as bullets slammed into it from Teal'c's weapon. Ignoring Smudge and the reddish purple blood streaming from its wounds, it readied itself to leap at Teal'c, but more bullets smashed into its chest from the rest of teams weapons, who had heard the alarm and were charging into the fray.

The creature was now being attacked from three sides, and it cast this way and that, undecided as to who was the biggest threat. Eventually it gave a snarling howl, and turned and fled into the night, still moving swiftly and easily for all it had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

Teal'c moved to pursue the beast, but a shout from O'Neill stopped him.

"Not yet, Teal'c, let it go for now!"

"But it cannot be allowed to escape, O'Neill!"

"I know, but our first priority is our wounded, then I want you to go hook up with the doc!"

Teal'c understood immediately. The creature was bleeding, there would be a trail to follow. They could apprehend it later. They'd harmed the creature, so it would go in search of easier, less painful prey. The doctor and the other SAS sergeant were alone out in the open, and although they were well armed and forewarned, they would still be a prime target.

O'Neill skidded to a halt beside the stricken British soldier. Smudge was lying on his back, unconscious, his breathing shallow and fast. The blow had torn a huge chunk out of his chest, the flesh hanging in ribbons, and his shirt was rapidly becoming soaked in blood.

"Carter! Get over here, bring the first aid gear!" He looked around for the British officer. "Lomax!"

Carter ran up to O'Neill's side, dropped to her knees and began to try and stop the bleeding. After pulling on a pair of latex gloves she tore open a field dressing and pressed it down hard on the wound. The pad soaked through within seconds. As the blonde Major tore the wrapping from another dressing, Lomax appeared out of the darkness. "The bloody thing is heading south, straight for the doc and Chalky-" she broke off as she took in the sight on the ground, Carter having just pressed a fresh pad over Smudge's chest. "Ah, SHITE!"

"Carter, how's he doing?" asked O'Neill.

"Not well, sir. We really need Janet, this needs sutured as soon as we can manage it. He's losing a lot of blood."

She nodded to Daniel to take over applying pressure to the wound now that he'd managed to put on a pair of gloves, and began to tear open a fluid set.

"Okay. Teal'c, Lomax, you're with me. Colour, you stay here and keep watch in case that thing comes back."

"Yessir!" said Dinger, and moved to a vantage point slightly higher up the hill, stopping off on the way to pick up one of the anti tank rockets. He laid down his M-16, and picked up Smudge's minimi; in order to have the maximum firepower he possibly could.

"Carter, you and Daniel stay here and do what you can for Smudge," said O'Neill. Carter nodded distractedly, her full attention on the gravely wounded soldier. "Oh, one thing sir. Be careful of the creatures claws- with the amount of bleeding we've got here, it may have injected some kind of anti-coagulant into the wound."

"Anti what??"

"A substance that stops the blood from clotting, sir."

"Oh. Nice," he said, sarcastically. "Anything else?"

"No, sir. Just hurry." The blonde looked worriedly at her patient. "I don't know how long he has."

Lomax had switched to different channel on her radio, and had been talking forcefully into it during the exchange between the two airforce officers. They heard her swear softly under her breath as she completed the conversation and turned back to the rest of the team.

"The Lynx can't take off, sir. Storm has come in at the airfield, and they're even having problems getting a Sea King out from RAF Bulmer, so at the minute the doc is Smudge's only chance."

"Okay people, lets move." O'Neill, Teal'c and Lomax headed off at a swift pace, all three well aware of the urgency of the situation. O'Neill had gotten Dinger to contact the doctor and Chalky while the three were getting ready to move out. The big man had apprised them of the situation, and the two were picking up their pace, as well as increasing their vigilance.


	4. Chapter 4

Chalky finished talking into the mic of his radio headset, and turned to Doctor Fraiser, his expression slightly worried. They'd been concerned when they had heard gunfire echoing through the night, and it appeared their fears were being realized. She was finding the young sergeant to be a good traveling companion- like Teal'c, he only tended to speak when he felt something actually needed to be said, leaving her to devote her energy to keeping up with his slightly longer strides.

"What's happening?" she asked. Almost six years of experience in the SGC had taught her that whenever a professional soldier's face wore that expression, things were going seriously wrong.

"They've been attacked, ma'am. Smudge is down, and he's pretty badly hurt." The quiet sergeant shook his head slightly. "When Dinger says things are bad, chances are it's gone completely pear shaped."

He turned on his small, red filtered torch and looked at his map. After poring over it for a few seconds, he looked back up at the doc.

"We've still got about three kilometers to cover. The Colonel, Teal'c and Major Lomax are heading down to join up with us, but we need to pick up the pace. Basically, Major Carter thinks you're Smudge's only chance of survival. Not only that, they think that whatever it was that attacked them could be heading this way, so it's time to get a shufty on."

Janet nodded, understanding the slang term from the context- in other words; it was time to get a serious move on. Sam wouldn't have put that kind of pressure on them if it wasn't necessary.

Chalky was checking the machine gun he carried, and was hurriedly stripping the sling from the weapon, so it wouldn't get in his way should they be attacked, as was looking increasingly likely.

"I'm not being funny, ma'am, but I think we need to transfer some of your kit into my bergen." He said, looking critically at the large pack containing personal gear and medical equipment that the small woman was carrying. "No offence, but you'll be able to move a lot faster if we lighten the load- as it is, I'm carrying a fraction of what I'm used to, anyway."

Fraiser nodded, she understood the need for speed and she'd stopped being oversensitive about her stature in these situations a long time ago- the blonde sergeant was an awful lot bigger than her, after all.

They quickly transferred the heavier items of kit, and within a couple of minutes of being alerted to the problems the rest of the team were facing, the two were making far swifter progress toward the camp.

* * *

O'Neill, Teal'c and Lomax were making even better progress as they were traveling downhill, and were unencumbered with heavy equipment. That had all been left with Carter, so they were carrying only their weapons and the minimal weight of their assault vests. They'd gotten an exact position fix and route from Chalky, and were hoping to rendezvous in around 25 minutes.

As they headed down a particularly rocky stretch, Lomax lost her footing and with a snarled curse slid to the bottom of the shale slope. The other two hurried down to where the dark haired Major was disgustedly getting back to her feet.

"You ok?" asked O'Neill.

"Yeah, fine- just bruised my pride," she shook her head, annoyed at herself for making the sort of boneheaded mistake that she would chew out a recruit on selection for.

"I think we need to throw caution to the wind, and give ourselves a little light. We can't rely on the moonlight if it keeps vanishing behind the clouds," said O'Neill. Teal'c nodded. "I agree, O'Neill. It may have the further advantage of drawing the creature toward the group with superior weaponry."

They flicked on the red torches, and resumed on their way.

Ten minutes later, O'Neill called a brief halt. "Okay, lets see where they are," he said, about to key his radio. He never got the chance, as gunfire erupted seven hundred metres further down the hill.

"I guess that's the answer to that question, folks!"

O'Neill broke into a run, Teal'c and Lomax hot on his heels.

* * *

Chalky and Fraiser had been making good time. Taking a swift break to catch their breath, Chalky checked his map.

"About a K and a half to go," he said, stuffing it back into his pocket. He moved off again, Fraiser close behind him. A few seconds later she crashed into the man's back, as without warning he suddenly stopped dead.

"Ooof!… what the-"

"Shhh!" snapped Chalky, listening intently. The stealthy sound reached his ears once more, and this time it was joined by a low, hissing growl. "There!" he whispered urgently. "Did you hear that?"

The brunette nodded, a chill traveling down her spine. Chalky looked around hastily, and seeing a slight rise to their left, away from the sound, gestured toward it. "Up there- move!"

The pelted up the hill, Chalky spinning and dumping his bergen and beginning to sweep the area with the infrared sight attached to the top of his minimi. Fraiser felt her heart beat even faster as she noticed a shadowy shape darting behind a cluster of boulders at the other side of the trail.

"Gordon Bennet…" muttered Chalky as he saw the size of the thing. "Ma'am, pass me that rocket launcher." He didn't dare take his eyes from the spot he'd last seen the bipedal reptilian monstrosity. Frasier turned and hurriedly freed the large green tube from the straps securing it to the young soldier's pack. He laid down his weapon, relieving Fraiser of the LAW 90 so he could ready it to fire. "Do you know how to fire the minimi?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, stick with the P90." He retrieved the light machine gun, and Fraiser peered into the darkness as she flicked off the safety catch on her own weapon. At times like this, her respect for the SG teams grew, and she saw from Chalky's composure that the SAS soldiers were cut from the same mould- if anything, the sandy haired sergeant was even cooler in a crisis than most members of the SGC.

There was a flurry of movement below them, and Chalky let loose with the minimi, sending a three sharp bursts toward the creature. Fraiser added her own rounds in the general direction- as her weapon didn't have a night sight, she merely hoped for the best. Her blood froze as she heard a guttural snarl from below them, and she saw Chalky drop the minimi and heft the LAW 90 onto his shoulder. The beast was still one hundred and fifty metres away; so he took the chance to do some real damage, as Dinger had told him that small arms fire alone didn't have a huge effect.

Sighting carefully on the beast, he steadied his breathing, then having made sure the petite brunette wasn't directly behind him, he smoothly depressed the firing stud. A gout of bright orange flame blossomed out behind him and he squeezed his eyes shut and tilted his head downward as the high explosive rocket cleared the front of the launcher. It blazed a trail through the darkness, illuminating the area for miles around, before detonating as it reached its target. The resultant fireball lit up the sky as it bloomed upward. Chalky threw aside the now useless launcher, and swept his light machine gun back into his hands.

"Did you get it?" asked Fraiser, struggling to see through the gloom to the other side of the hill.

He swore gently under his breath. "No, I don't think so. Can't see it anymore either." He continued to sweep the hillside looking for any signs of the monster.

"We're not going to achieve much more here- that probably scared it off for now." He reached for his pack, leaving the discarded launcher where it had fallen, as the piece of equipment was a one-shot deal. When they were both ready to move, he took a last look through his sight, and satisfied that he could see no signs of the hostile, began to jog northward once more, motioning to the doctor to go slightly ahead and to his left, so he could keep her in sight at all times. He heaved a sigh of relief as he saw three figures pounding down the hill two hundred metres above them.

* * *

O'Neill swore as the rocket blazed out from the rise and began moving as fast as he dared, trying to avoid thinking the worst. He was therefore immensely happy to see two people jogging toward him from the direction the rocket had launched from, one around six feet tall, the other considerably shorter.

"I am pleased to see that you are well, DoctorFraiser," said Teal'c as they drew close enough to hear him.

"Believe me, Teal'c, it's a pleasure to be well!" she replied.

"Are you two okay?" barked O'Neill.

"Yes sir, we're fine."

"Let's move- you can fill us in on that little display on the way," he said, turning and leading them back up the hill.

They covered the ground quickly, Chalky tersely taking them through the encounter as they went. The usually placid sergeant was vastly irritated by the fact that he'd seemed to miss with his shot.

"Don't worry about it, sergeant. The thing's fast- it probably saw the rocket and dived out of the way." O'Neill keyed his radio. "Carter?"

The blonde Majors voice crackled forth.

"Yes, sir?"

"We've got the doc and we're on our way back- how's he doing?"

"Not too good sir, I've done all I can for him- he's still alive, though."

"Okay, our ETA is fifteen minutes- tell Dinger to be on the lookout, that hostile might be back, 'cause it just got its ass kicked down here."

"Understood, sir. Carter, out."

Carter had moved Smudge to one of the tents with Daniel's help. The redhead's skin was unusually flushed for the amount of blood loss he'd sustained, and spasmodic tremors were wracking his body. She checked the IV line and mopped some of the sweat from his face.

They'd managed to slow the bleeding down to a trickle, though for a while she'd thought they were never going to get it to stop. The reaction he was having now was worrying her, however. She raised her head to meet Daniel's equally worried gaze.

"What do you think?" he asked, glancing back down at Smudge.

"Maybe there was a poison on its claws too." She glanced out to where Dinger was on watch. "Can you keep an eye on him for now? There's not a lot more we can do for him, and I'll need to bring Janet up to speed when she gets here."

Daniel nodded, and Carter slid backward through the tent flap, clipped her P90 back onto its sling and walked over to where Dinger was trying to spot the returning team members.

"How is he, ma'am?" asked the big colour sergeant, his face uncharacteristically somber.

"We've done all we can," said Carter. "Hopefully Doctor Fraiser will be able to do more for him when she gets here, but it's not looking good." She rested a hand on his arm, and he looked down at the blonde. "She's the best- if anyone can save him, she can."

He nodded- he'd seen the wounds across the younger mans chest, and as an experienced soldier he'd expected to hear no better. Carter replaced her hand on her rifle and looked out into the darkness.

"The colonel said to be on the lookout- they engaged it further down the hill and it apparently came off worst in the exchange. Depending on how smart it is, it may realize that there are less of us up here now."

"It don't want to come back here," the big man growled. "I'll rip it apart with my teeth."

He belatedly remembered he was talking to an officer. "Sorry ma'am, but Smudge is a good mate."

"Don't worry about it, I understand." Carter looked back down the hill, and thought she saw movement. "What's that?" she whispered, pointing. They both took a more secure grip on their weapons. Dinger raised Smudge's minimi and peered through the nightsight.

"It's them," he murmured as he lowered the weapon. Carter released the breath she'd unconsciously been holding and moved to the edge of the wood to meet them.

O'Neill saw the silhouette and tensed for a second before recognizing his 2IC's profile.

"We're here," he threw over his shoulder.

"Good," said Fraiser, "Chalky, I'm going to need the equipment you're carrying."

"Yes ma'am."

Sam swiftly updated Janet as they headed for the tent. Chalky had removed her gear from his bergen and was following close behind. "Where do you want this stuff, ma'am?"

"Just lay it down there," said the petite doctor curtly, pointing to the ground in front of the tent.

"How much fluid has he had, Sam?" she asked as she pulled on her own gloves and began to check the wounded man over. Daniel scrambled out of the tent to allow her room to work.

"He's had a litre."

"Okay, set me up another five hundred mills."

The blonde began ripping open the package. Janet was just hooking it up when Smudge gave a garbled yell and every muscle in his body stiffened up. "DAMN! He's going into a seizure…" she tore open another pouch and flipped open her drug case, pulling out a syringe and a vial of diazepam. He began to convulse, limbs thrashing wildly, and Sam had to hold onto his arm with all her strength in order for the Doctor to inject the drug. Once it was in, she laid the syringe to one side. Gradually he began to relax, but his breathing was laboured, growing worse with every inhalation.

"He's shutting down," said Janet; she'd been afraid of that, with IV diazepam there was always a slim chance of respiratory depression. She glanced up at the blonde major. "You know how to set up the defib?" Sam nodded; she'd set up the small automatic unit before. She found the small box and began hooking up the cables.

O'Neill poked his head into the tent. "How's he doing?"

"Not now!" snapped Fraiser.

O'Neill retreated swiftly. He knew better than to bother the doc when she used that tone. What she lacked in inches, she more than made up for in attitude when it came to her patients. Plus he REALLY didn't like needles, and pissing the doc off was a sure fire way of experiencing more of them.

Smudge's breath rattled once more in his chest then stopped completely. Fraiser felt at his neck and finding no pulse, she slapped the defib's adhesive pads onto his chest. She measured up and delivered a precordial thump to the sternum then glanced at the small screen. "He's in V-fib," she muttered. "Sam, draw me up some epinephrine- clear!"

Smudge stiffened as the shock jolted through his body. The trace on the screen subsided to a flat line. "Asystole,"she said and gritted her teeth, though her heart was sinking even as she fired the epinephrine into his vein, following it up with a shot of atropine and started CPR. A few minutes later she shook her head sadly and made the always difficult decision to stop. Even though she'd been a doctor for a long time, it still hurt to lose a patient and she knew from long experience that Smudge was now unfortunately beyond her help. She looked down at her watch, noting the time, and raised her head to meet Sam's sad gaze.

"He was too far gone, Sam."

Carter nodded. She had thought Smudge's wounds were too severe, let alone the complications of the substances the claws had left in his system. "I should go tell them…"

"No," said Fraiser. "It's ok, I'll do it."

Carter followed Fraiser out of the small tent. O'Neill looked questioningly at his 2IC, and she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

"Damn…" he muttered.

Lomax saw them emerge, and her face fell. She walked over to the other two women. "He's gone?" she asked quietly.

Fraiser nodded. "I'm sorry, but there was nothing more I could do. To be honest I don't even know if a fully equipped hospital could have saved him, with the amount of damage there was."

Lomax nodded. From speaking to Sam, she knew that the blonde Major trusted Janet's skills as a doctor implicitly, and she had enough respect for Sam's opinion to do the same.

"I'll tell the boys," said Max. "Thanks for trying."

"I'm just sorry it wasn't enough."

Lomax nodded again, accepting the sentiment for what it was, then with a sigh walked away to deliver the sad news to the remaining members of her team.

Carter and Fraiser headed over to join SG-1, giving the British contingent a little privacy to deal with the loss of their comrade.

O'Neill looked up as the two women sat down.

"So he was that bad, huh?"

"Yes, sir," said Carter, somewhat dejectedly. Fraiser rested a supportive hand on her friend's shoulder. "There was nothing more you could have done, Sam."

"Well, we can't do anything else tonight," said O'Neill. "Let's see about getting some sleep."

"I will take the watch, O'Neill. I am sufficiently rested from my Kel'noreem earlier." Said Teal'c, inclining his head. O'Neill nodded, it wasn't the first time the big Jaffa had done so to allow the rest of the team to rest, and he knew there was no point in arguing with the big man.

"Well, things'll look better in the morning." He glanced over at the three British soldiers who were deep in quiet, intense conversation. "I hope."


	5. Chapter 5

The day dawned brightly, the sun shining through the leafy canopy above them and speckling the ground with points of light and shade. There had been a short shower of rain during the night, and the scent of fresh ozone was strong in the air. O'Neill emerged from his tent, and went over to touch base with Teal'c who was still in almost the same position as he had been when they had finally managed to get some sleep the previous evening. He heard the others beginning to move around too, and shortly Carter, Daniel and Frasier all appeared, blinking against the strong morning sun angling through the trees.

"Anything to report, Teal'c?" he asked as Carter wandered across the clearing to join them. "Where's Lomax and the other two?"

"They left to apprehend the creature approximately an hour ago, O'Neill," said the big Jaffa serenely, though he knew this particular piece of news was likely to send the Colonel into orbit. The British officer had spoken to him before she left with her team, and as far as he was concerned it was only right that they be the ones to avenge the death of their slaughtered team member.

"You're joking," said Carter, her expression one of disbelief, before O'Neill interrupted. "And why, exactly, didn't you tell us??"

"Because MajorLomax requested that I not do such a thing, O'Neill."

"Oh she did, did she?"

"Sir, I-"

"Carter, if you're about to try and make an excuse for 'em, forget it!" he snapped. "I don't care how good they are or think they are, they should NOT have left without us."

Fraiser and Daniel walked over to find out what the source of the commotion was.

"Has anybody seen Max, and the guys?" asked Daniel when he was close enough. He chucked a thumb back in the direction of his sleeping area. "Dinger was sharing my tent, but there's no sign of him now."

"Apparently," growled O'Neill, sarcasm dripping from his tone, "Teal'c here thought it was a good idea to let them head off to try and get that thing on their own." He glared at the big man. "Is this some revenge thing again??" He still hadn't quite forgiven Teal'c for stranding them on Vorash when pursuing Tanith.

"That his comrades-in-arms avenge his death is proper, O'Neill," Teal'c inclined his head, completely unperturbed.

O'Neill picked up his assault vest, retrieved his radio from its pouch, and savagely keyed it. He was seriously annoyed, there was nothing that got to him more than folks not keeping him in the loop, or sauntering off to do their own thing.

"Sunray, this is Sierra Golf One Niner, come in right now, over!" he barked into the mic.

"This is Sunray, go ahead." Lomax's voice issued from the tiny speaker, not sounding the least bit concerned by O'Neill's irate tone. This, of course, only served to irritate him even further.

"Where the hell are you, Lomax?"

"Just packing up some extra luggage that we've come across, we'll be back in about forty five minutes."

"What do you mean, luggage??"

"Not something I'm going to discuss on a voice channel, comsec and all that."

Carter winced; she could see the Colonel's blood pressure almost visibly climbing. Janet was standing next to her and murmured, "comsec?"

"Communications security," Carter looked at the doctor. "I thought something like this might happen sooner or later," said the blonde Major, quietly enough so they Colonel wouldn't hear it. "He and Max are pretty similar, personality wise, so I figured there would be a clash at some point."

"I guess this is the point," said Fraiser, wryly. She'd had her fair share of clashes with the sometimes volatile Colonel too, and so knew how easy it could be.

Carter gave a worried smile. "I wish I'd been wrong. This is liable to be kinda loud when they get back."

"Lomax is really as bad as he is?"

"Yup, same as him, if she's right, she's right."

"Oh dear," murmured the doctor. "I guess we have time to eat before it all starts, then."

"That's probably a good idea."

Lomax, Dinger and Chalky reappeared forty minutes later, carrying a large heavy bundle wrapped in a green waterproof poncho slung between two long branches.

Carter had taken over from Teal'c on watch, and saw them approach. She looked back over her shoulder to where the rest of SG-1 were sitting. Well, where Daniel and Fraiser were sitting. They'd packed up their gear, and now the Colonel was prowling back and forth like a caged tiger, and Teal'c was meditating some way off, still unconcerned by his actions- after all, he'd upset O'Neill before.

"They're back, sir," she called, and O'Neill spun on his heel and strode over, his face like thunder.

"This better be good," he muttered as they waited for the three soldiers to finish making their way up the hill.

"Morning, sir!" said Lomax cheerfully.

"Oh boy," thought Carter. "He's gonna go nuts…"

Lomax caught sight of Fraiser, who had stood up and come across to see what was going on. "Brought you a pressie, doc,"

"Major," said O'Neill after they had deposited their load. "A word?" He turned and stalked further up the hill, away from the rest of the team. Lomax shrugged slightly and followed. As she drew up beside him, he spun around and glared at her.

"Just what did you think you were playing at, Major??" he snapped, only keeping hold of his temper by a thread. Lomax looked the taller officer straight in the eye, not backing down for a second, for all he held a higher rank. In fact for all she was only 5'7", O'Neill had the slightly disconcerting sensation that she'd grown an inch or two.

"My job, sir," she replied evenly, her green eyes steely. "That thing was loose, and it took out one of my lads. I was NOT going to let it get anyone else."

"That's not the damn point, and you know it! You should have told me what you were planning!"

"Would you have okayed our action?"

"No, I damn well wouldn't! That thing had already taken out one member of this team, so any mission to track it should have been undertaken with all the resources at my command!"

"I made a command decision. It was something we needed to do."

"You are not IN command here, Major."

Lomax's expression was growing angrier by the minute. "I'm aware of that, Colonel," she replied, putting emphasis on his rank. "Feel free to level a charge against me at my regimental headquarters when the mission is over, but I'm not going to apologise for my actions."

O'Neill shook his head angrily; this wasn't about rules and regulations.

"Let's get one thing straight, Major. From this point on you don't head off whenever you feel like it! Is that clear?!"

"Crystal," she muttered, then rounded on him, eyes blazing. "Let me ask you one thing. If had been one of your people that had been turned into mincemeat, wouldn't you have wanted to be the one who got the bastard??"

"Of course," said O'Neill, simmering down slightly. He knew how difficult it was lose someone under his command, and Carter had told him that the SAS team had been together for three years- long enough for deep bonds of comradeship to develop. "But that's not the point. We are out here as a unit, Major, and from now on, that's the way it's going to stay."

He looked her in the eye again. "Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Fine, we'll say no more about it. But I promise you, Major, you do an end run around me again and you'll regret it."

"Understood, sir," she replied, annoyance still simmering in her gaze, "do you mind if we brief the rest of the team now?"

O'Neill nodded curtly, and gestured for her to precede him back down the slope.

"Chalky, get that thing opened!" Lomax shouted. She turned to O'Neill. "I suggest we get a chopper up to take both Smudge and that thing off the hill, sir. Don't think we want to leave it lying around after the doc has had a chance to take a look at it."

"Do it."

Max nodded curtly, and changed over to the second channel on her radio. She walked over to one side so the rest of the teams' voices wouldn't intrude on her conversion with RAF Bulmer.

Chalky had taken his fighting knife from its sheath, and was slicing through the paracord holding the poncho closed. Teal'c was standing off slightly to one side and Fraiser, Daniel and Carter were helping Chalky, Fraiser just having pulled on pair of gloves prior to touching the creature.

Lomax rejoined them just as O'Neill hunkered down to take a look. "Chopper will be here in an hour, and I've told them to bring along two sets of bio containment kit."

"So what happened?" asked Carter.

"Went surprisingly well, after the farce last night. We picked up its trail not far from where Chalky fired the LAW, and there was a lot of blood. Judging by the state it's in, he actually got it pretty good." She smiled at the sandy haired man, who grinned back. The fact that he'd tagged it with the rocket he'd launched had made him feel a lot better.

"Anyway," Max continued, "We found it about two K's from here- I'd say it was trying to make it back up to Hownam Rings- it never got that far though, injuries must have been too severe. Was dead when we found it so we bundled it up and brought it back."

Chalky peeled back the groundsheet, and SG-1 got their first good look at the creature. It looked shorter lying prone on the ground, but Carter guessed it would be around six and half feet tall if it was standing. Its arms were proportionally longer than a humans and were powerfully muscled, and its legs were a little shorter, and bowed slightly. The face was burnt all down one side, though the other could be seen to have reptilian armour plating, similar to an Unas. The barrel chest was hugely muscled, and also protected with scales.

"Now that is a face only a mother could love...," said O'Neill, already coming down from his bout of annoyance and getting back to the task in hand. There was one thing to be said for the colonel, once he'd said his piece he didn't let it keep gnawing at him. He grimaced as he took in the heavily clawed hands and large fangs jutting from its lower jaw.

"Is an hour going to be enough, doc?"

"It'll have to be, sir, if that's all the time we've got," she replied, looking up at Jack. "It's not as though I can run any tests on it here, anyway, so a quick once over will have to do."

An hour and a half later, and both the creature's corpse and Smudge's remains had been carried off to a secure area by the aircrew from Bulmer. During her examination, Fraiser had made a disturbing discovery- the creature had been female, and what's more, pregnant. That piece of information made the need to get up to Hownam Rings much more urgent, for they all knew that the stakes had just been raised- the monsters were obviously breeding, and with all the genetic manipulations they had no idea of how long that took, or the time frame required for the creatures to reach maturity. Fraiser had considered returning with the creature, but after speaking with O'Neill had decided to remain with the team- after seeing the injuries Smudge had sustained from a single blow, it was entirely possible that she would be of far more use going along with the others. The British scientists were perfectly capable of running the tests she had ordered, and the information could easily be transmitted to the remaining secure radio.

"Okay folks, lets move," said O'Neill, and the team headed off northward.

Lomax lowered her binoculars and passed them to Carter.

"That's Hownam Rings over there," she said, pointed to a hilltop that could be seen around two kilometres away. A white tent was pitched, and Carter could see various bits and pieces lying on the ground. They were too far away to see any details of the gear lying strewn over the area, but it was obvious even from this distance that the locale had seen a fair amount of activity.

As Carter lowered the small set of binoculars, the team's radios crackled into life.

"Hello Sunray, this is Papa Delta One, message over,"

Lomax keyed her radio to reply, murmuring, "It's about time," as she did.

"Hello Papa Delta One, send message, over."

"Tests complete, ready to send results, over,"

"Roger that, send data in fifteen, over," said Lomax, nodding to Dinger and Chalky, who immediately removed their packs and began retrieving the radio equipment, assembling the small digital set ready to receive the results of the tests that Doctor Fraiser had ordered run.

"Understood, Sunray. Papa Delta One, out."

O'Neill looked around. "Okay, this is a good a place as any to stop for food."

Carter and Fraiser sat down near Lomax. "I take it that was the team from Porton Down?" asked Fraiser.

"Sure was, doc. Hopefully they've found something useful to us," said Lomax. "They've had a mobile lab in the area since this started to get weird."

"What's Porton Down?" asked Daniel.

"The British Army's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical research centre." said Lomax. "Not a place I'd want to go anywhere near by choice, really."

"But they're the only people over here that were capable of doing all the tests I wanted," said Fraiser.

"Lads have almost finished setting up the scaly kit, so shouldn't be long before the data comes through."

Dinger looked over where the rest of the group were sitting, and gave Lomax a thumbs up.

Fraiser and Carter went over to join the big colour sergeant.

"All set, Colour?" said Carter, looking down at him.

"Yes ma'am. Should get your stuff through in about five minutes... if the science geeks are on time with it."

He realised he was talking to two of the science geeks and flushing, hastily backtracked. "Um, not that I'm saying that all science types are geeks-"

"Don't worry, Dinger." chuckled Fraiser. "Us science geeks aren't that easily offended."

"Well, we're not, anyway," said Carter, smiling at the big man. Though they'd only known him for a short time, she was really beginning to like the British NCO's sense of humour.

"Good stuff," he grinned. "Cause I'm REALLY good at offending people,"

Carter glanced over at her CO. "Trust me, once you've worked with the Colonel for a while, you grow a thick skin to that kind of thing,"

Fraiser nodded her agreement, smiling.

The digital set gave a beep, and a green LED flickered on. "Here it comes," said Dinger, adjusting a couple of dials to get the best reception possible.

"How long will the data take to come through?" asked Fraiser, looking over his shoulder at the set.

"Couple of seconds, not much longer than that," said Dinger, his attention still fixed on the small screen. "Stuff's sent compressed and encrypted, and this thing sorts it all out when it gets here."

"Cool," said O'Neill, who'd wandered up to see what was going on. "You sure we don't need one of those, Carter?"

"Yes, sir," said the blonde Major, shaking her head slightly and smiling. For all O'Neill made out he was low tech, you showed him something with flashing lights and he was like a kid at Christmas time.

The small screen sprang to life, and green text began to crawl quickly across it. A few seconds later, the green LED blinked out.

"That's the lot." He gestured at a key. "That one scrolls the screen down." Dinger stood up to let the diminutive doctor read the text.

Janet knelt down and began to read, Carter hunkering down beside her.

"You were right, Sam," said Fraiser, glancing at the tall blonde. "There was an anti-coagulant in Smudge's wounds, the creature's claws were coated with it."

"I thought so, the bleeding took a long time to stop."

"His system was full of a bacterial infection, too." the petite doctor shook her head. "By the looks of this, the only way he would have survived was if he'd gotten a sizeable injection of penicillin very quickly after being attacked."

"You got any of that stuff with you, doc?" asked O'Neill.

"Fortunately, yes; but in order for it to do any good, it'll need to be administered within ten minutes of contact."

"Why?" asked O'Neill.

"Look here," said Fraiser.

He looked. "Okay, you wanna translate that, doc?"

"Sorry, sir," said Janet. "The infection headed straight for his central nervous system. It acted like a very virulent strain of meningitis, even though it was bacterial."

"That was why he went into a seizure?" asked Carter.

Fraiser nodded. "Yes," she carried on reading. "Once in there, they couldn't shift it. It needs to be wiped out before it gets the chance to colonise the meninges."

"The what?" asked O'Neill, confused by the medical terms.

"The tissues that protect the brain and spinal cord, sir," she explained. "Once they're infected, the effects spread incredibly quickly. That's why Smudge went downhill so fast when he did."

"Jeez, so not much to worry about then," he said, sarcastically. Carter had carried on reading while Fraiser was giving her explanation to O'Neill.

"Actually, that's not all sir." said the blonde.

"What else?"

"They found a corrosive poison in venom sacs in its jaw." the blonde shook her head slightly. "It's capable of corroding tissue on contact, they think it's an altered type of cobra venom."

"Which explains the cobra DNA," said Fraiser.

"So if it's in its jaw?"

"It can spit the poison, sir. Probably very accurately." Carter bit her lower lip. "I think goggles would be a good idea when we go in, sir. The spitting cobra always goes for the eyes, and it can hit from ten metres away; chances are these things have an even longer range."

"Do you have any good news for me at all, Carter? Doc?" asked O'Neill, exasperatedly.

"Just that I do have penicillin in my pack, but like I said, it'll need to be administered fast." said Frasier. "I'll set up a few doses, and issue them out, just in case I'm not there if one of us gets hit."

"Okay. You do that, then we'll get moving again- is that everything?"

"For now, sir." said Fraiser. "The other tests will take quite a bit longer to run."

"You finished with this stuff now, ma'am?" asked Dinger.

"Yes, but store that information."

Dinger nodded, hit a few keys, then powered down the unit and began to take it apart, Chalky coming in to help.

Fraiser issued out the syringes of antibiotics, while Carter brought the rest of the team up to speed on the scientist's findings.

"What I'd give for a nice simple hostage situation right now..." muttered Lomax.

"Okay folks, let's go," said O'Neill. "Next stop, Monster Island."

"There are no islands in the vicinity, O'Neill."

"Teal'c, we really need to work on your sense of humour," said O'Neill, before turning and leading them toward Hownam Rings.


	6. Chapter 6

As they neared the crest of the hill, O'Neill gestured for them all to fan out and check the area thoroughly. He was a little more relaxed now that he knew the creature that had attacked them was neutralised, but he also knew from long experience on and offworld that it didn't pay to be complacent. The team separated to comb the area from the south to the north of the hilltop.

"Clear!" called Carter. The phrase was echoed by all the remaining team members, with Dinger and Chalky moving into sentry positions after a hand signal from Lomax. The dark haired Scottish Major took up a position looking north, with Dinger and Chalky respectively taking up positions at four o'clock and eight o'clock around the edge of the hilltop in relation to her, therefore covering all the approaches with overlapping arcs of fire.

The area secured, the rest of the team walked in to inspect the area beside the tent. The accoutrements of an archaeological dig were scattered around in the grass, with two trenches having been dug alongside the row of roughly squared off stones that had been sunk into the ground. The blocks of stone were well weathered, and the lichen and moss growing on them gave mute evidence of the blocks having been there for a very long time. Running east to west for approximately one hundred and twenty metres, there were twenty-eight stones in total, though eleven were only visible at turf level. The remaining seventeen ranged from fifteen centimetres to around a metre in height and were approximately half a metre square when viewed from above. The surrounding ground consisted of the grassed over remains of an ancient settlement, some mounds curving into circular enclosures, others around the edge of the hilltop curving to encompass it and were clearly what was left of fortified walls.

Judging by the appearance of the site, the two students had obviously been there long enough to become reasonably established. Grids had been marked out in the bases of the two trenches using small wooden pegs and string, to enable the two archaeologists to accurately map out the locations in which any artifacts had been found. Daniel had been moving along the standing stones beside the two twenty metre long trenches, and came to a stop beside one of the tallest. Carter walked over to see what had piqued his interest.

He glanced up at her as she came into his line of vision, and gestured at the set of three concentric circles inscribed in the stone.

"There they are again, without the Goa'uld symbols this time,"

"Do we have any idea what they mean?"

"From what I've been able to make out from my research, there are a couple of theories, though nobody seems to actually know for sure." He straightened up and stepped away from the edge of the trench.

"The first is that is was meant to represent infinity, but that one isn't widely subscribed to, as that would suggest far more advanced mathematical know how than the ancient Celts were credited with."

"So what's the second?" asked Carter, looking curiously at the carving.

"The second is the more common theory. That the three circles represent the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone."

"Have they been found anywhere else?"

"They're all over this part of Scotland," he looked critically along the line of stones. "That's strange too," he remarked.

"What is?" asked Carter, as he took a compass from his pocket and sighted along the row.

"They run east to west." He looked over at her as he replaced the compass in its pouch. "Usually standing stones on this planet run from north to south."

Carter frowned… there was something very familiar about the design and alignment that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Whatcha got, Daniel?" asked O'Neill as he, Teal'c and Fraiser moved across to join them.

"More carvings, sir," said Carter. "This seems a little odd, too. I think we may have found the location of one of the ring devices, but I'm not sure where it's activated from."

She gestured toward the end of the second trench where the pegs and string were missing in a rough circle around two metres from one of the largest stones. The earth had been cleared around the sides of the stone to the bottom of the trench so that one entire side was visible to a depth of around three feet below the surrounding grass. They could see that the stone continued on further below the surface.

"I'd say that when the rings activated, they took the twine and pegs down with the people. The technology seems to be able to recognize the difference between the ground and anything placed on it." Carter jumped down into the trench. "Stay away from that clear area."

O'Neill nodded, and he, Fraiser and Teal'c backed away slightly.

She hunkered down beside the exposed stone, Daniel hopping down to join her. On closer examination, she could see the earth had been disturbed here too. She glanced at Daniel.

"Do you have your tools handy?"

"Uh, yeah, in my pack," he disengaged the clips securing his pack to his assault vest, and caught it before it hit the ground. Opening it, he retrieved the leather wrapped roll of trowels and brushes that he always carried. Carter picked out a small trowel and a brush and began to carefully clear the fallen earth away.

O'Neill edged a little closer, angling himself so that he could see into the area where his 2IC was working.

"There it is…" he heard her murmur, as she slowly began to uncover the golden top edge of a Goa'uld control panel.

Within a few minutes, the panel was completely uncovered. The six translucent green keys had been cleaned of mud, and Carter squinted up at her CO.

"The students must have uncovered it… I guess the police officers must have hit it by accident; maybe one of them kicked it. Only one way to find out of it's operational, sir."

"I just knew you were gonna say that," said O'Neill. "Teal'c, we better get ready for another one of those things. Daniel, get outta there, I don't want anybody closer than they have to be."

"It should be safe enough, sir. Unless one the creatures is standing over the ring site underground, it won't bring anything up."

"Humour me," said O'Neill, turning his head toward where Max was keeping watch. "Lomax!"

The British officer's head snapped around. "Sir?"

"Get over here!"

Lomax sprang to her feet and trotted over, Dinger and Chalky moving to plug the gaps in the sentry cover, taking one hundred and eighty degrees each.

"Okay," said O'Neill once Lomax was close enough to hear him. "Get ready, folks. We could have company very shortly, and I'm not talking about the kind that just forgets to bring franks to the barbecue."

"You found the ring thing?" asked Max, peering down into the trench. "I can't see anything."

"It only appears when it's activated," Carter explained.

"Oh. Okay."

"Yup, so everybody spread out and get ready; if Igor appears, I don't want him running off and mutilating folks."

Carter waited until the whole team was ready, Fraiser backing away slightly to allow Teal'c, O'Neill, Lomax and Daniel more room to manoeuvre.

"Ready?" asked the blonde Major.

O'Neill nodded, and they all tightened their grip on their weapons.

"Okay, here goes," she said and activated the panel.

A split second later, the five rings appeared in sequence with a flash of bright white light, and the accompanying sound as they cut through the air. Almost immediately, they dropped back below the ground, the earth splashing upward as they passed.

"Now that's something you don't see every day…" muttered Lomax, looking at the patch of ground that now showed no sign of the technology concealed beneath.

There was a distinct lack of any large, clawed creatures.

"Well obviously it's working." O'Neill removed the olive green baseball cap he was wearing and ran his fingers through his greying hair before replacing it on his head. "I guess the only thing we can do is go down there to check it out."

He looked at his blonde 2IC. "You sure we'll be able to get back out, Carter?"

"I would say so, sir, yes. The fact that the two police officers reappeared after vanishing proves that the device is working at the other end."

"Indeed, MajorCarter. A ring device will not operate unless both are functional," said Teal'c, tilting his head slightly.

"They appeared on that hill over there, though," said Lomax, gesturing in the direction of Hownam Law. The northern hilltop could just be seen through the morning haze.

"A type of escape tunnel, maybe?" said Carter.

"Apophis used ring devices in this way, O'Neill. A single device can be linked to as many as four others, as long as they are in close proximity."

Carter glanced at the big Jaffa, nodding her agreement. "I know how to set the controls, sir. We should be able to make sure we come back up here."

"Okay. Teal'c, Carter and Lomax, you're with me. Daniel, you look around up here, see what else you can find out- maybe those students left some notes behind, might be some stuff we can use."

O'Neill looked over at Fraiser. "I want you to stay here with Daniel, Chalky and Dinger, Doc. We don't know what we're gonna find down there, so you probably better get ready for casualties."

He shrugged slightly. "Y'know, just in case,"

Fraiser shook her head slightly, and gave him a half smile. "Just be careful,"

He grinned at the petite brunette. "Ah, I just know you love taking care of us,"

"Daniel, could you activate this once we're all in position?" asked Carter, gesturing at the control panel.

He nodded, and jumping down into the trench, took Carter's place beside the controls.

O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c and Lomax grouped themselves together within the circle.

"You sure this is safe?" Max murmured to Carter. The blonde Major smiled. "What do you mean, the ring device, or jumping into a nest of god knows what?"

"Okay, point taken."

"Sir, we should probably put on some eye protection before we head down there," said Carter, retrieving her own set from a pouch.

"Okay," said O'Neill. Once all four were suitably attired, O'Neill nodded to the young alien crouched beside the controls.

"You ready?" asked Daniel.

"Oh yeah," said O'Neill. "As we'll ever be, anyway."

"Good luck," said Fraiser, as the archaeologist activated the panel. She was just able to see O'Neill flip her a casual salute and Carter give her an encouraging smile as the rings reappeared, then with the same flash of blinding light as before, they were gone, the rings once again vanishing from sight.

"And now we wait," muttered the young doctor, before moving off to prepare for any wounded. Daniel headed off to inform Dinger and Chalky of what was going on, then went to investigate the contents of the tent.

"They'll be fine," he said as he passed her on the way to the tent.

"I hope so," she replied, then devoted her full attention to her task, anything to keep her mind doing something other than worrying about what could be happening below their feet.


	7. Chapter 7

The first thing to hit them when they materialised far below the ground was the smell.

"Maaaaan, this place smells like a college student's laundry bag," said O'Neill. The odour was a combination of burnt flesh, singed hair, death and long decay, overlaid with the stale coppery tang of old blood. "Stay sharp, kids, we don't know how many of those things are loose down here."

"Yes, sir," said Carter, as they waited for their eyes to adjust to the dim light. It wasn't pitch black by any means, but the light levels were low enough in comparison to the surface to force them to wait a few minutes. They used the time well, all four listening intently for any sounds of movement. There were none, the only sound was their own breathing.

The area around the rings was surrounded by six golden pillars, covered in Goa'uld text. The pillars were supporting the roof of pagoda like construction housing the ring mechanism. There was a white circle inlaid into the floor, surrounded by a representation of the ring itself. They could see that the floor and the pillars themselves were splashed with blood; some splashes were almost six feet up from the floor, giving mute testimony to the violence of the injuries sustained there. They could now see the rows of stasis tubes stretching away into the darkness. These were the source of the dim light pervading the chamber, as almost all of them were emitting a soft green glow. They could also see two very still figures lying on the floor a few metres away, the unnatural poses of the bodies making it very obvious that both were dead.

"I guess those are the two students," said Carter.

"I'd say so," agreed Max. "The clothing fits the description of them."

Lomax keyed her radio. "Sunray to Zero, radio check, over,"

"Sunray, speech clear, over," said Chalky's voice from the speaker.

"Sunray, out." She glanced at the Colonel. "At least we know the radios will work to the surface,"

O'Neill nodded. "Good thinking."

The ring device was backed up against the wall, with the whole chamber being almost hexagonal in shape. Carter strained her eyes, and she could just see an enclosed chamber in the centre of the cavern, a soft blue light emanating from the doorway.

"That's the control area, sir," she said, pointing at the hexagonal building some hundred metres away, in the exact centre of the rows of stasis tubes. If viewed from above, the place would look a little like a bicycle wheel, with the small building being the hub at the centre, and the spurs of stasis tubes being the spokes. She did a quick calculation in her head, there were around three hundred of the stasis tubes, fifty on each of the six spurs, in two rows of twenty five.

"How do you know that, Carter?" he asked.

She closed her eyes for a second. "I've been here before, sir." She shook her head slightly, then looked over at the Colonel. "Well, not here exactly, but I remember somewhere very similar. Trust me, that's the control room, and if we want to destroy this place, that's where we need to do it from."

"Would these be the memories of Jolinar, MajorCarter?"

The blonde Major nodded. "It's not the first time the Goa'uld have tried something like this, Teal'c."

"Okay, lets check it out," said O'Neill, taking point. Max was about to move in behind and follow, but Carter stopped her.

"Max, hold it right there!"

The Scot froze. "Why?"

"Just take one pace back, then two to the left, then go straight forward."

"Okaaaay," said Max, doing as she was told.

"What's wrong, Carter?" asked O'Neill, looking curiously at his 2IC.

"There's a booby trap, sir," she explained. "Watch."

She waited until both Teal'c and Lomax had moved out into the chamber proper, then picked up a rock and tossed it at the area of floor Max had been about to step on. There was a click as the rock landed and a tongue of flame exploded out from the pillar nearest to it, searing the spot Max had been standing on and extending all the way over the white circle on the floor.

"Bloody hell," breathed Lomax as the flame died down and disappeared.

"That explains the burns on the first guy, I guess," said O'Neill.

"Indeed," said Teal'c moving to take a closer look. "There is a small hole in this pillar. I would not have noticed it, however. It is unlike any Goa'uld device Apophis used."

"One of Baal's toys, maybe.," said O'Neill.

"Probably, sir, yes." Carter agreed, nodding.

"Okay, that's just not cricket..." muttered Max, as far as she was concerned, booby traps were only fair game when she'd been the one to plant them.

They began to move toward the centre of the chamber, everyone now even more alert to the possibilities of danger. O'Neill glanced into one of the stasis tubes as they drew abreast of it. The creature inside was almost identical to the one they'd killed.

"How many are down here, dya think?"

"If all the tubes have creatures in them sir, there'll be around three hundred."

"That's a lot of beasties," said Max, frowning. "We don't have enough explosives to wire up each of these tubes separately."

"I know, but having seen this place, we may be able to start a chain reaction from the control area. I'll know more once I've seen it." said Carter.

They moved up to the open doorway of the central building. O'Neill indicated that he and Teal'c would go in first, followed by Carter and Lomax. He nodded to Teal'c then held up three fingers, then two, then one. As he dropped the last finger the two men sprang through the doorway, sweeping the area thoroughly and moving into the room itself, Teal'c to the left, and O'Neill moved to the right. When the two men had vacated the doorway, Carter and Lomax followed.

"Okay, clear," said O'Neill, satisfied that they were the only people in the room. The centre was taken up with a large horseshoe shaped control panel, with a large oval screen dominating one wall. There was a soft hum coming from the banks of machinery covering the other four walls, all connected by thick conduits to the central control panel. Small lights were blinking on and off, and as Carter walked around to take a closer look at the control panel, she could see Goa'uld text scrolling across it.

"So, can we blow the whole place from here?" asked O'Neill.

"Yes, sir. These conduits are transporting a naquada enhanced mixture," she glanced at Teal'c. "That is, I think they are... am I reading this right, Teal'c?"

The big Jaffa joined her at the panel, and glancing at the text, nodded.

"You are correct, MajorCarter."

"In that case, we can set charges on the junctions and, if they're big enough, it should ignite the naquada in the mix. The stasis tubes are all interconnected- the naquada mix is what's powering them."

She touched a key, but instead of bringing up more information as she'd expected, the oval screen on the furthermost wall flared into life. "Ooops..."

"Ooops?" said O'Neill. Carter gestured at the screen, where three figures were fuzzily forming. "Oh," said O'Neill, sarcastically. "THAT kind of oops- sometimes I wish you could resist the urge to fiddle with stuff, Carter."

"Sorry, sir."

The figures came into focus, revealing themselves to be Ba'al, Nirti and standing in the centre a little in front of the other two, Apophis.

"Foolish mortals!!" Apophis boomed. "How dare you defy the will of your Gods??"

O'Neill shook his head. "Now I KNOW they can't be real..." he glanced at Carter for confirmation. "Recording?"

The blonde nodded.

"Sheesh, he even records his own clichés."

The recorded Apophis carried on.

"You will pay the price for your trespassing, the flesh will stripped from your bones by the divine warriors of the Gods!"

Carter was looking at the display, which had given a beep and different instructions were flowing over it.

"Uh, sir?" said Carter, her tone slightly worried. "We have a problem, I think."

"Enjoy your last few seconds of life, mortals!"

"What problem?" said O'Neill. He glared at the recorded Goa'uld. "Can't we shut him off??"

"What? No, sir. The problem is that I think some of the creatures are being automatically reanimated."

"Okay, that's a bad thing. Do we have time to set the charges?"

"If we had them all here, sir, yes. But we'll need every piece of ordnance we've got, both here and on the surface."

"So we gotta get out, then come back?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay," he said, checking his P90. "Lets go."

Teal'c and Lomax led the way from the room, all four moving fast. As they emerged into the large cavern, they could hear a distant whine. The headed up the spur toward the ring transport, weapons at the ready. Around 50 metres up the row, one of the tubes slid open. One of the creatures leapt from the tube and landed lightly on the floor. It sniffed the air, and spun around to face the group. It snarled as it caught sight of them.

"Break left!" yelled O'Neill.

They all dived sideways into the adjoining spur. Looking down the row Lomax spotted another tube sliding open, this time behind them.

"Ah crap," muttered Max. "There's another one!" she yelled, firing a burst from her M-16 at the beast.

"C'mon people, MOVE!" yelled O'Neill, leading them towards the end of the spur. They shot past the first creature as it struggled to get through the spaces between stasis tubes- the fact that it was so heavily muscled making it a very tight fit. It flailed its claws ineffectually at the team, roaring in frustration as its prey passed so close.

They pounded toward the transport rings, Max and Teal'c stopping every five metres or so to turn and send fire down on the monster in pursuit.

As they skidded into the area beneath the golden pillars, Carter began tapping the green keys in a careful sequence.

"C'mon, Carter!" yelled O'Neill. "Transporterise us already!"

Lomax and Teal'c carried on firing at the two creatures, both of whom could be seen getting closer, they were now only twenty five metres away. Lomax glanced over at the end of the next spur, and swore as she saw another tube sliding open.

"Ah, bugger!" she snarled, "There's another one incoming!"

The dark haired Scot moved her hand to the grenade launcher on the front of her rifle. It gave a dull pop as the 40 millimetre bomb was launched in the direction of the first creature.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" she yelled, just before it detonated on impact with the beast. The monster was hurled from its feet by the force of the blast, its chest a smoking ruin. She hurriedly tore open a pouch and reloaded the launcher.

"CARTER!" yelled O'Neill, firing at the second creature as it rounded the row of stasis chambers twenty metres away.

"Got it!" said the blonde, and hitting the final key, the four hurriedly grouped themselves into white circle. They heard a howl of fury as the creatures realised their prey was escaping, then the rings activated, whisking them back to the surface.

On the surface, Dinger was standing guard over the trench containing the ring device. Chalky was patrolling the perimeter, and Fraiser had finished setting up her gear into a crude field hospital. She'd taken over the student's tent, Daniel having taken the various notebooks from it and was now poring over them, hoping to glean more information. She emerged from the tent, and walked over to the big Colour Sergeant.

"Anything?"

"No ma'am, not since the radio check." said Dinger, shaking his head. "Thought I heard something, but nothing happening yet."

As he spoke, the green keys on the controls began to light up in sequence. They exchanged glances, then Dinger turned to see where Chalky was.

"Chalky! Get yer arse over here!"

The young Sergeant jogged up, and they both cocked their weapons.

"You may want to step back a little, ma'am."

She nodded, and moved back, readying her own weapon. Daniel appeared and trained his own weapon at the bare patch of earth in the base of the trench."Is it them?"

"We don't know," said Fraiser. "I hope so."

The rings activated, and Fraiser heaved a sigh of relief as she saw four upright figures materialise in the centre of the trench. As the rings disappeared back into the ground, Dinger grinned and lowered his weapon.

"And here I thought we'd be getting deep fried Major, extra crispy," he said.

"Sorry to disappoint." said Lomax, grinning.

"Say Carter, how about you cut it really, really close next time?" said O'Neill. "I swear you do that just to make my hair go even greyer!"

Carter gave her CO a withering look. "I do my best, sir."

"Okay kids, we better get all the PE we got, and plan how we're gonna do this,"

He brought the rest of the team up to speed as they went over the inventory, then began planning the assault.

"Okay, Daniel, you're the only one who knows how to operate that thing, so you're staying up here. That way you can transport us out if anything goes wrong."

"Okay," said the archaeologist, though he was clearly unhappy about being left behind.

"Doc, you're staying up here too." He looked at the two British soldiers. "I want you two along with us. We're gonna need as much firepower as we can get."

"Dinger, bring the M-16," said Max. "The 203 grenades seem to be pretty effective against the beasties- better than small arms fire."

The big NCO nodded, and went to swap weapons. He returned just as the blonde Major began to explain the plan of attack.

Carter hunkered down, picked up a twig, and began drawing a diagram in the dirt.

"We'll need to place charges here, here and here." she said, pointing to the junctions on the plan. "We also need to plant three on the control panel, and another half dozen on the machinery in the control room."

She looked up at O'Neill. "If we don't blow all these areas simultaneously, the chain reaction won't work."

O'Neill nodded. "Do we have enough charges?"

"Yes, sir," said Dinger. "We have enough for all but three, and we can strip down a couple of the claymores to get the rest."

"Do it."

"Another thing, sir." Carter gestured at the stones poking out of the ground. "Those have naquada in them as well, sir."

"So?"

"So they might go up too." she looked at Dinger. "Do we have a dozen timers?"

"Yes ma'am."

"So we put them on a timer. We'll need to be out of there and at least a hundred metres away when the place blows, or we'll go up with everything else if the stones explode too."

O'Neill looked at his 2IC. "Y'know, I'm sure you do this on purpose. Just once I'd love to hear... 'It'll be simple, and we'll get out with plenty of time to spare.' But nooo, it's always like this."

Carter chuckled. "Well, maybe next time, sir."

"Okay, lets do it."

Twenty minutes later all six were grouped in the trench, the charges being carried in a backpack by Teal'c. The timers were all attached, so all they had to do was plant them, set them, and high tail it out of there.

"Ready, folks?" asked O'Neill, pulling his goggles down from on top of his baseball cap.

They all nodded.

"Indeed we are prepared, O'Neill."

He looked over at Daniel, who was once again crouched beside the controls. He nodded, and the archaeologist activated the rings. He heard a final comment from O'Neill as they vanished from sight. "We're off to see the wizard..."


	8. Chapter 8

Immediately after materialising, they spread out, ready to fire. Lomax carefully stepped around the tile in the floor that triggered the booby trap. Squinting in the dim light, she could see the corpse of the creature she'd hit with the 203 lying exactly where it had fallen.

They had spent a little while on the surface with their eyes closed, so that they wouldn't have to worry about waiting for their eyes to adjust to the dim light in the cavern.

Seeing no sign of the two creatures they knew were loose, O'Neill decided to take advantage of the situation, and head straight for the control room.

"Lets go, folks," he said, motioning for Dinger and Chalky to take point. Carter and Lomax followed on, and O'Neill and Teal'c brought up the rear, both turning as they went, watching the area behind them.

"Where are they?" O'Neill muttered.

"They may be at the far side of the chamber, O'Neill." Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "At least one of the creatures sustained considerable damage in our previous encounter."

As they neared the open doorway, Carter stopped Dinger. "Be careful when you go in, they may have come to the conclusion that we're going to go back in there." she murmured.

"Are they that clever?" he whispered back.

"I'm not sure, but they certainly aren't stupid, by any means."

The big man nodded, and he and Chalky took up positions on either side of the doorway, just as Teal'c and O'Neill had done previously. Giving Chalky a thumbs down to indicate possible enemy activity, he then pumped his fist downward and the two exploded into action, diving through the doorway and breaking left and right. Carter and Lomax followed on next, with O'Neill and Teal'c taking up positions guarding the doorway, so nothing could sneak up on them while the team were inside.

Chalky and Dinger slowly circled the room, trying to get into a position where they could see into every corner. Unfortunately their caution didn't do them much good.

As Dinger moved around to see behind the control console, one of the creatures exploded out from its hiding place beneath it. The big NCO tried to jump backwards to give himself some space to fire but to no avail, as the beast sprang forward, and grasping the big mans assault vest, lifted him bodily and hurled him across the room. He flew through the air and impacted with one of the banks of equipment with bone snapping force, leaving a huge dent in the casing, and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Chalky opened fire, rounds slamming into the beast's torso, and Lomax sprinted across to Dinger as Carter opened fire. One of Carter's rounds took the creature in the knee, the joint disintegrating into a bloody reddish purple mist, and the beast dropped to the ground, unable to support its weight on its injured leg. That was the opening Chalky was looking for. He ducked as the creature spat a stream of poison at him, the substance harmlessly hitting the wall. He quickly straightened up and aiming carefully, pumped half a dozen rounds into its skull. The creature collapsed to the floor, twitched a few times, clawing at the ground, and then was still. The sandy haired Sergeant advanced on the creature carefully, weapon still at the ready. He poked it with the barrel of his minimi.

"It dead?" said O'Neill from the doorway. The whole encounter had been over in seconds, giving Teal'c and O'Neill no time to get into firing positions.

"Yeah, I think so, sir." Chalky glanced at the Colonel. "It's not moving, anyway,"

"That still leaves one left," said O'Neill. "Carter, hurry up and get those charges set."

"Yes, sir," said Carter and she quickly moved around to the control console.

Chalky swapped places with Teal'c at the doorway, and the big Jaffa removed his backpack and began to empty it onto the clear area on top of the console. Carter had placed the first two charges, but had now stopped and was examining the text that was now scrolling quickly across the screen. O'Neill glanced through the doorway, and seeing Carter hadn't started placing charges yet, wondered why.

"C'mon Carter, we don't have time to sightsee!"

"Sir, we have a big problem!" called Carter, as she placed the third charge under the console. Teal'c had picked up two charges, and Carter quickly pointed to the two conduit junctions that they needed to be placed on.

"What now??"

"Dinger hitting that equipment has caused a malfunction sir- the whole place is reactivating!"

"What do you mean, reactivating??"

"All the tubes are getting ready to reanimate their occupants, sir!" She checked the screen, then glanced at her watch. "I'd guess we have ten minutes, maximum, before this place is hip deep in those things!"

"Oh, that's just great!" O'Neill growled. "Is that enough time??"

"It'll just have to be, sir!" Carter called back as she finished planting the charges on the console, and feverishly began to place and arm the ones she needed on the banks of machinery around the room. Teal'c had placed the final junction charge, and was helping Lomax get Dinger to his feet. The big man was still a little groggy, but aside from that had come through his experience relatively lightly. He shook his head, trying to clear it.

"You okay, Dinger?" asked Lomax, her tone concerned.

"Yeah, just got a hell of a hangover," he replied, squeezing his eyes shut and giving his head another shake. He opened his eyes, then bent down and picked up his M-16, shrugging off the supporting hands, and straightened back up to stand unaided.

"Ah, rats," said O'Neill. He keyed his radio. "Daniel, doc, you there??"

Fraiser's voice replied. "We're here sir,"

"Get yourselves to a safe distance, dunno if we're going to get out of here in time!"

"But sir," said Fraiser, reluctant to desert the rest of the team.

"No arguments, doc! You and Daniel get outta there!!"

"Yes, sir," said the doctor. "Fraiser out,"

Fraiser sprinted to the tent, and quickly packed up her medical supplies, before running back outside to join Daniel. He hefted his own pack onto his shoulder and the two sprinted down the hill for around a hundred metres. Dropping their gear, the two exchanged glances.

"Back up?" said Frasier, raising an eyebrow. They both knew that if by some miracle SG-1 and the SAS team managed to get to the surface, they could have wounded, which meant they'd need all the help they could get to vacate the hilltop.

"Back up." said Daniel. After all, the Colonel had repeatedly said that you don't ever leave your people behind. He'd probably be mad later, but if he was alive to BE mad, that was a bonus.

Fraiser and Daniel sprinted back up the hill, skidding to a halt beside the trench. They were just in time to see the lights on the ring transports control panel flicker and go out.

"What the...." said Daniel, jumping down into the trench. He experimentally hit a few keys. Nothing happened, the keys themselves not even lighting up.

"This is not a good sign..." he muttered.

"What's wrong?"

"The console isn't active anymore- which means that the device at the other end must be inoperational."

Fraiser froze as the import of his words sunk in. "But if it's not operational..."

"That's right, it means they won't be able to get out."

"We've got to tell them," said Fraiser, and keyed her radio.

Carter had just finished setting the timers. "Okay sir, that's it! We have five minutes to get to the ring transport, and get out of here before the whole place blows!"

"It's never easy...." he muttered before yelling, "Okay people, we're outta here!"

He was about to move when his radio crackled into life once more, Fraiser's voice issuing urgently from the tiny speaker.

"Fraiser to O'Neill!"

O'Neill motioned to Teal'c to take point, and fell in behind him, keying his radio as he ran. "What is it doc? This isn't a good time for a chat!"

"The rings may be damaged at your end, sir!"

"Great!" he replied, sarcastically. "Thanks, doc, O'Neill out................CARTER!"

The blonde ran up beside him, With Dinger, Chalky and Lomax covering the rear. They heard gunfire as Lomax fired at the last creature, which had appeared on top of the control room, ready to leap down on the unsuspecting team.

"Sir?"

"The rings might be outta commission- get up there and see what you can do!"

"Yes, sir," said the blonde, and sprinted even faster, Teal'c staying with her.

Lomax checked the grenade launcher on her rifle as Dinger and Chalky fired more rounds at the beast, which leapt down to ground level and rolled, trying to avoid the hail of gunfire being directed at it. It snarled and readied itself to spring. She triggered the grenade, which sailed through the air and landed just in front of it, exploding on impact. The shockwave slammed the creature to the ground, where it lay dazed for a second, before beginning to struggle back to its feet.

"MOVE!" yelled Lomax, shoving Chalky ahead of her. The three SAS soldiers turned and began pelting after SG-1, Lomax turning to fire as she ran, slowing her down slightly, and a gap opening between herself, Dinger and Chalky.

Carter slid to a halt beside the controls for the ring device, and swore softly as she saw the damage that one of the creature's claws had done to it. She took her knife from its sheath in her belt, and levered off the casing with the tip of the blade. She expertly eyed the damage, and saw that she would be able to get the power hooked back up, but with the amount of broken connections, there was no way she'd be able to operate the transport from this end. Blocking out the noise, she began to frantically try and get the power re-routed.

O'Neill appeared beside her. "Well?"

"I can get the power back up in time I think, but Daniel will need to operate the console on the surface as soon as I do." she shook her head in frustration. "If I had more time I could fix it, but..."

"I get it!" said O'Neill, and keyed his radio. "Daniel!"

"Jack?"

"You still near the rings up there?"

"Uh, yeah, but.."

"We can talk about orders and how you're meant to obey 'em later, but for now just be ready to trigger the rings on our signal!"

"No problem, just tell me when,"

"O'Neill out," he turned back to his 2IC. "How's it coming, Carter?"

"Nearly there..."

DInger and Chalky sprinted into the pillared area, with Lomax still twenty metres behind. O'Neill saw one of the tubes open just as the dark haired Scot drew level with it, and one of the creatures sprang out.

"LOMAX!" yelled O'Neill, "DIVE AND ROLL!"

She instantly complied, but was a shade to late as the creature made a lunge for her. One glancing blow from a set of claws opened three large cuts on the right side of her forehead, but the creatures other hand managed to tear deeply into her left shoulder just as she rolled clear of it, ripping through her shirt into the flesh beneath. She gave a choked cry of pain as she slammed into the ground. O'Neill, Teal'c, Dinger and Chalky sent a hail of bullets into the creature before it could finish off the dark haired major, punching it from its feet.

Lomax struggled to her feet, staggered a few paces, then fell again, arterial blood pulsing from the huge jagged wound. Chalky and Teal'c sprinted forward and grabbed a shoulder each, gripping the Majors assault vest. She groaned through gritted teeth as the movement sent a fresh wave of agony through her injured shoulder.

"Leave me! I'm knackered!" she spat, her head slumping to one side.

"No chance!" snapped Dinger, Teal'c nodding his agreement with the big British soldier. They dragged Lomax into the white circle, and Dinger spun to launch a grenade at the beast that was now once more on its feet and moving toward them.

O'Neill loosed a few rounds of his own, then saw more and more of the tubes beginning to slide open.

"Carter- now would be a really good time!!" He glanced at his watch. "We only got another minute and half before this place blows!"

"Just a couple more seconds," said Carter, hooking up the final connections.

Chalky had torn the syringe of antibiotics from its case in his assault vest, and jammed it into Lomax's leg through her fatigues, knowing that without the injection, the Major was as good as dead from the same infection that had killed Smudge.

"Gah!" she yelled, and punched him in the ear with her good arm before she passed out.

"Thanks, Chalky, oh, you're welcome, boss," he muttered under his breath, rubbing his ear, and taking a more secure grip of the now unconscious officer.

"Got it!" yelled Carter as the machinery hummed back into life.

Around fifty of the creatures were now loose, and about twenty were charging toward the group in a snarling pack.

O'Neill grabbed his radio, and they all squeezed into the circle.

"Now Daniel!" he yelled into the mic.

Nothing happened.

"Oh for crying out loud!" he yelled, then keyed his radio again. The creatures were 15 metres away and closing. "Now, Daniel, or so help me-"

The rings activated, and the team reappeared a split second later on the surface.


	9. Chapter 9

"How long??" said Dinger as he, Frasier and Chalky dragged the unconscious British officer from the trench.

"Forty five seconds! Move!" said O'Neill as the rest of the team leapt from the trench, Teal'c helping Dinger with Lomax.

They sprinted down the hill and were around ninety metres away from the standing stones with they heard a rumbling boom from far below their feet, and all eight were hurled from their feet by the shockwave, tumbling ten metres further down the hill. A split second later, there was a blinding flash as the stones on the top of hill erupted into a spectacular explosion, hurling fragments of dirt and rock hundreds of metres into the air.

O'Neill and the rest of the team covered their heads with their arms as the debris rained down around them, Dinger throwing himself over Lomax, who was just beginning to come round. The dirt stopped falling and the area became almost eerily quiet.

O'Neill gingerly raised his head, pieces of dirt falling off the peak of his cap. "Everybody okay?"

"Yes, sir," said Carter, struggling upright, "I think so."

They heard Lomax's muffled voice issuing from beneath the big Colour Sergeant. "Ummmph, gerroff me, ya big swine!"

"Sorry, boss," said Dinger, before rolling to one side.

Fraiser found her pack, and pulling on a pair of gloves began trying to staunch the bleeding from the dark haired Scots wounds.

Carter, Teal'c, O'Neill and Daniel walked slowly back up to the top of the hill, stopping at the edge of the twenty metre deep crater that had replaced the remains of the ancient settlement. Smoke was lazily drifting up from a gaping black hole in the centre of it.

O'Neill stooped, picked up a rock, and threw it into the hole.

"Glad I don't have to explain this in the local tourist guide......"

Two days later, SG-1 were headed back to the US. They'd checked what was left of the underground complex by sending a small remote through the hole that had been blown into it, and the explosives had done their job. The chain reaction in the naquada mix had completely destroyed the stasis tubes, control room, and all the creatures. O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c and Daniel just had a quick stop to make before they headed for the airfield at Edinburgh.

"Hellooooo...." called O'Neill as he knocked on the doorframe of the private hospital room.

Lomax grinned as she saw the identity of the visitors. A large dressing was taped to her forehead almost obscuring her left eye, and her left shoulder was heavily swathed in bandages.

"I'd stand up and salute, but the hospital gowns don't leave much to the imagination." said Max, chuckling.

"Tell me about it," said O'Neill. "I mean, I ask you, why do they need to have such ready access to your butt? Is any injection really THAT urgent?" he finished, shaking his head.

"General Hammond asked us to stop by on the way, and give you this," said Carter, and handed over an envelope.

"Thanks," said Max, and began to tear the envelope open. "It was certainly an experience working with you lot."

She had pulled out the sheet of paper and began to read, her eyes widening as she scanned down the page. She finished reading, and looked up at the Colonel, a half grin appearing on her face.

"Looks like you don't get rid of us that easily, sir."

"What does it say?" asked Carter, curiously.

"It says here that a new team will be joining the SGC.... SG-22, Major Siobhan Lomax in command." Her grin widened. "Gordon Bennett, they want Dinger and Chalky too.... is your place ready for Dinger?"

"I'm sure they'll survive," said Carter, smiling. She glanced at her watch. "Sir, we're gonna have to move, if we want to make our flight."

"See you guys in a few weeks," said Max, shaking hands with all four.

"Indeed, I look forward to working with you in the future, MajorLomax," said Teal'c.

"Likewise," said O'Neill. "Y'know, what he said."

"Yes, sir." said Lomax, smiling.

Carter was standing at the doorway. "Sir, we really have to go,"

"Okay, okay...." said O'Neill. Carter gave a small wave from the doorway, then the four headed off. Lomax listened to the good-natured bickering until it faded completely, and looked back down at the letter in her hand.

"Well, looks like life is going to get a whole lot more interesting...." she murmured.

THE END


End file.
